Differences between American and British Punctuation

Though similar, there are some differences between American and British punctuation. These differences extend to dates, titles, time and quotes. Here are examples:

For writing the date, Americans write the month first followed by the day and the year. On the other hand, the British list the day first. For example, December 31st is 12/31/2017 in American English, but it's 31/12/2017 in British English.

In American English, titles are used with a period. This is the opposite of British English, which doesn't use periods. For examples, Americans write Mr. Williams and Dr. Jones, but the British write Mr Williams and Dr Jones.

With time, the American system uses colons, and the British system uses periods. Americans write 1:30 and the British write 1.30.

Quotes are also different. American English uses double quotation marks for initial quotations and then single quotation marks for a quotation inside the quotation. British English does the opposite. Here are the two styles:

(American punctuation) "I love the words of Martin Luther King," said the professor, " like 'I have a dream.'"

(British punctuation) 'I love the words of Martin Luther King', said the professor, 'like "I have a dream."'

American and British punctuation are very similar. In fact, the similarity is greater than in vocabulary and pronunciation. However, it is good to be aware of the differences.