Hello, my name's Amelia. Today we're going to look at the different types of English in the world.

You may think that they're all the same. After all, it's the same language, but actually, there are quite a few differences.

The most obvious one is pronunciation.

For example, can you tell where these characters are from: the United States, Britain, or Australia?

• Hi, how you doing?
• Hi, how are you?
• G'day, how you going?

It isn't just pronunciation that's different; it's also spelling.

British English sometimes uses extra letters. Here are a few examples:

• British - favourite / US - favorite
• British - colour / US - color

Sometimes the British use different letter order too:

• British - centre / US - center

But the major difference is vocabulary.

Sometimes, even though people from the United States, Britain, and Australia all speak English, they can still get very confused when talking to each other because they use different words for the same thing. Listen to these:

• Australian - If you walk down the footpath, past the servo, my unit's on the left.
• British - If you walk down the pavement, past a petrol station, my flat's on the left.
• USA - If you walk down the sidewalk, past the gas station, my apartment's on the left.

You probably prefer one type of English to another, depending on what you've been taught or what you're used to listening to.

That's perfectly okay. There's no right or wrong type of English.

One is not better than any other.

Next time you're listening to the tele (TV) or watching a film (movie), try to listen out for the different accents and the vocabulary they use, to see if you can guess where the people come from.

As far as Cambridge English writing and speaking exams are concerned, you can use the standard English you prefer.

Cambridge English exams are international, so it doesn't matter which English accent you have or what vocabulary you use.

Just remember to be consistent. Stick to one type and don't mix them up.

Good luck. Thanks for watching.