The idea for this paper was sparked by Edward Olson’s study of Differences in the U.K. and U.S. Versions of Harry Potter Books, where the original British version had been altered for republication in the U.S. market in order to be more appropriate to the conventions of standard American English.

When examining these alterations, there was a clear lexical and a less-clear punctuation difference between the British and American versions of the same novel. Many of the alterations may have been due to the use of distinctly British colloquial vocabulary in J. K. Rowlings' original works. But would there have been a need for "translation" even after the British slang expressions and other youth terms had been "localized" for the American audience?

The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, tells the story of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious young millionaire who throws extravagant parties in his Long Island mansion, hoping to attract the attention of his former beloved, Daisy Buchanan. However, Daisy is married and cannot live up to his great expectations. Gatsby's sordid past and Daisy's aggressive husband contribute to a final tragedy. The novel is not only a skillful description of strong emotions and the eternal conflict between dreams and reality; it is also a celebrated portrayal of the Jazz Age and America in the 1920s.

This paper compares the original U.S. trade edition of Gatsby with a Penguin Books version that was published in England, modified for the British audience. The comparisons range from differences in spelling and choice of terms to dissimilar punctuation, grammar, and syntax. There is discussion on the variation due to cultural differences, and on the more notable alterations made in the process of "translating" or "localizing" the novel from American to British English. A detailed list of differences that were found, complete with page numbers in the respective editions, can be found at the end of the paper.

The Great Gatsby is a widely popular novel, almost a classic since birth. A British version was published right after the original U.S. version, and over the years both versions have been reprinted several times. There is some effort in this paper to compare these reprints as well, but this aspect of the study is not comprehensive due to an inadequate availability of enough different reprintings of both the U.S. and U.K. editions to enable a systematic longitudinal comparative survey.

Differences in Spelling

There are several words in British and American English that share the same pronunciation but are spelled differently. The following table illustrates examples of these differences found in the two versions of The Great Gatsby.

Table 1: Same pronunciation, but different spelling

British English	American English	Difference
savours	savors	Elimination of "u"
tyre	tire	"y" becomes "i"
grey	gray	"e" becomes "a"
sombre	somber	"e" and "r" switch places

Most of these differences stem from the "simplification" of the American spellings of the original English words. The orthography of the word in American English has been changed to correspond better with its pronunciation, thus making learning and writing the language easier.

The two versions also differ at times on whether one or two words are used: the U.S. version uses terms like "any one" and "some one" instead of "anyone" and "someone," but also "halfway" when the British version reads "half way" and "out onto a rosy-colored porch" instead of "out on to a rosy-coloured porch." Some of these differences could stem from the difference in the times of publication of the two versions (1953¹ for the U.S. version which was examined, vs. 1994 for the British version), which will be discussed later on in the paper.

Different But Similar Terms

Certain words are both spelled and pronounced in different ways, but still are the same term. Consider the following table:

Table 2: Same term, but different pronunciation and spelling

British English	American English	Spelling Difference	Pronunciation Differences
criticising	criticizing	"s" becomes "z"	The sibilant fricative becomes voiced
aluminium	aluminum	Loss of one "i"	U.S.: e-lu’mi-nem G.B.: al-yu-mi’ni-em

The words are clearly recognizable as meaning the same thing(s) despite the slight differences in spelling. But unlike the examples in the previous section, the pronunciation is also different; sometimes greatly so. However, the same underlying concept and general likeness remain.

Different Words for the Same Concepts

In the two versions of the same novel, it became clear that the speakers (and readers) of British and American English sometimes simply use different terms or expressions for the same concept. Some of these are "standard differences" between British and American English. For example, the "gas-pumps" of the original American version are "petrol-pumps" in the British one. However, the "crop of caterers" transformed itself into a "corps of caterers" during its journey across the ocean. The reason behind this change is less obvious.

The use of dissimilar terms can also be due to different cultural usages and connotations of those terms. The American "restaurant" has been translated as "café," and "six" as "half a dozen." That is, the same term either exists but is used in slightly different spheres of meaning, or it exists synonymously with another, also commonly-used expression.

Differences in Punctuation, Grammar and Syntax

Quotations

The most obvious punctuation difference between the two versions is the way quotations are marked. The original American version uses quotation marks ("xx"), while the British version employs inverted commas (‘x’). American and British English also use inverted commas and quotation marks differently, respectively, when marking a quotation within another quotation:

• U.S.: "’Oh, is that your suit?’ I said. ‘This is the first I ever heard about it.’…" p.35
• U.K.: ‘…"Oh, is that your suit?" I said. "This is the first I ever heard about it."…’ p.41

Also, in American English commas and periods are always inside closing quotation marks, whereas the British may place them either inside or outside, depending whether they were part of the text quoted, as can be seen from the following examples:

• U.S.: "I think he killed a man," and… p.49
• U.K.: ‘I think he killed a man’, and… p.55

Commas

In general, the British version had more commas than the American one, as can be seen in the table below.

Table 3: The use of commas 1

Page	The American Version	The British Version	Page
18	broke off ceasing to compel my attention	broke off, ceasing to compel my attention	24
23	days under sun and rain	days, under sun and rain	29
24	afternoon and when	afternoon, and when	30
26	went toward the little office mingling immediately	went toward the little office, mingling immediately	32
37	discussing in impassioned voices whether	discussing, in impassioned voices, whether	43

There were, however, occasions when the person "translating" the novel from American to British English has removed commas instead of adding them:

Table 4: The use of commas 2

Page	The American Version	The British Version	Page
13	the evening, too, would be over	the evening too would be over	19
49	introduced himself, a butler	introduced himself a butler	55
78	tongue, and, moreover, you	tongue and, moreover, you	84

While some of these comma additions and omissions may result from differences between the two varieties of English, the translator "correcting" the author or editor’s mistakes can explain some of them. This, along with the more dramatic changes in grammar and syntax, is discussed further in the section dedicated to peculiarities in translation.

Hyphens

Another noticeable difference is the use of hyphens. (See Table 5 below.)

Table 5: The use of hyphens

Page	The American Version	The British Version	Page
6	anticlimax	anti-climax	12
27	Up-stairs	Upstairs	33
28	weatherproof	weather-proof	34
32	down-stairs	downstairs	38
37	tomorrow	to-morrow	42
45	country-side	countryside	51
48	roughneck	rough-neck	54
52	tonight	to-night	58
53	good-by	good-bye	59
61	timetable	time-table	67
64	today	to-day	70
69	southeastern	south-eastern	75
99	A seventeen-year-old boy	a seventeen year-old boy	105
100	soft-mindedness	softmindedness	106
139	motorcycle	Motor-cycle	145

While in one third (5 out of 15) of the cases the American term is hyphenated and its British equivalent is not, a certain part of the differences may be due to the early publication date of the American version (1953). In a modern American English text, terms such as "up-stairs" and "county-side" may be more likely to be spelled without a hyphen than with it. The spelling "good-by" is also fairly old. (More about this in the section "Peculiarities in Translation.")

The British version spells words like "anti-climax," "weather-proof," and "motor-cycle" with a hyphen, using a more modern spelling for some of the terms the American version hyphenated. In contrast, the hyphenation of e.g. "to-morrow," "to-night," and "to-day" seems slightly old-fashioned, especially when the (older) American text does not use a hyphen in those words.

Different Markings of Proper Names

Another very distinctive difference between the two texts is the way the titles of books, newspapers, and other items are marked.

Table 6: Different markings of proper nouns

Type of Publication	The American Version	The British Version
book	‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ * 2	"The Rise of the Coloured Empires" * 2
newspaper	The Saturday Evening Post	the Saturday Evening Post
tabloid	Town Tattle	Town Tattle
photograph	Montauk Point – The Gulls	"Montauk Point – The Gulls" *

The table is deceptive, because the names of the book and the newspaper (marked with *) occur in dialogue, and are thus quotations within another quotation, which means that the markings are reversed, as explained in the section "Differences in Punctuation, Grammar & Syntax – Quotation."

While the Americans capitalize the articles in titles, the British do not. The American use of italics is also much wider than the British, although both use plain fonts and quotation marks for the titles of books (U.S.: not in academic papers), articles, poems, essays, and songs.

The use of the abbreviation of the accolade "mister" is followed by a dot (U.S. "period", U.K. "full stop") in American usage, but not in British:

• U.S.: Mr. Gatsby
• U.K.: Mr Gatsby

The same principle also changes "Mrs. Wilson" into "Mrs Wilson."

There are several proper names that are spelled differently in the two versions of the novel. In the process of translation, "Claude" became "Claud," "Russell" changed into "Russel," "The Dewers" turned into "The Dewars," and "Wolfsheim" switched to "Wolfshiem." There is no obvious explanation for these changes.

Cultural Differences

Some of the differences of the two versions arise from the United States and Great Britain being different cultures, and thus having different ways of viewing the world. Table 7 exhibits the dissimilarities in capitalization between the American and British versions of the novel. These differences depend on the manner and frequency with which the terms are used in the variety of English, and on whether the items or concepts referred to are unique or commonplace.

Table 7: Dissimilarities in capitalization

The American Version	The British Version
French windows	french windows
English oak	English Oak
the Armistice	the armistice
Restoration Salons	Restoration salons

The choice of words may also be a matter of cultural convention. Where the American version speaks of "little girls," the British uses the term "children." The American "six," already mentioned in "Different Words for Same Concepts," has been translated as "half a dozen" in the British version.

Sometimes it can also be about fashion. While the original work describes women’s hair as being "shorn in strange new ways," the British version explains this as "hair bobbed in strange new ways," making a distinction between the areas of familiarity of the terms "shorn" and "bobbed." Also, "a sport shirt" is described as "a ‘sport shirt’" in the British edition, clarifying that this is not a commonly used term in British English.

Another fascinating dissimilarity in the two versions is the different terms concerning the First World War. (See Table 8 below.) These expressions are clearly culture-dependant, deriving from the different systems in which the two militaries are organized.

Table 8: Differences in First World War vocabulary

The American Version	The British Version
the Third Division	the First Division
the ninth machine-gun battalion	the Twenty-eighth Infantry
the Seventh Infantry	the Sixteenth
two machine-gun detachments	my machine-gun battalion

Peculiarities in Translation

Many of the dissimilarities between the two versions were understandable, even expected. Others, however, were a source of mystification. For example, the excerpt

"the man came after it one day when he was out." She looked around to see who was listening. "’Oh, is that your suit?’ I said. ‘This is the first I ever heard about it.’"

has been translated as

‘the man came after it one day when he was out: "Oh, is that your suit?" I said. "This is the first I ever heard about it."’.

The sentence underlined above in the American version is missing completely from the British version.

There were several other instances of additions or omissions of words, as can be seen in the table below. None of these alterations really change the content of the expression, although they might add or detract some information or connotations.

Table 9: Additions or omissions of words

The American Version	The British Version
of men who	of ash-grey men, who
surplus flesh	flesh
lifting work or rigid sitting in youth	lifting work in youth
while occasionally willing to be serfs	while willing, even eager, to be serfs
the turgid sub or suppressed journalism	the turgid journalism

The examples above were simple additions or omissions of a few words, three at the most. But what if the translator removed a phrase or sentence and replaced it with an altered form? (See Table 10.)

The first alteration below is understandable and relatively meaningless because the two terms are, in context, synonymous. The next three pairs could result from the translator trying to clarify the author’s meaning or to correct his language. The last alteration is more mysterious, as it involves the translocation of a city or town from one state to another. According to the Rand-McNally 1994 Road Atlas, Biloxi is indeed situated in Mississippi, although both the British version and the American book club version (p.113) read "Biloxi, Tennessee" (whereas the American trade version reads "Biloxi, Mississippi" as shown below).

Table 10: Inexplicable alterations

The American Version	The British Version
I said	I began
that I had played no part in her past.	that I expected no affection.
lighted cigarettes outlined unintelligible gestures	lighted cigarettes made unintelligible circles
shadows, that	shadows, who
Biloxi, Mississippi	Biloxi, Tennessee

More understandable than the error mentioned above are simple typing errors. Words such as "penumatic, "gyped," and "appendicitus," which all occur in the British version of the novel studied, cannot be found in either the U.S. Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary or the British Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English.

Word substitutions which result in opposite meanings are also very interesting. Compare the original "source of perpetual confusion" with the British version’s "source of perpetual wonder." There is also a passage where one character, Nick Carraway, feels alone in the company of others, being "within and without." Thinking of a theoretical casual observer in the darkening streets below, he muses: "and I was him too, looking up and wondering." The translator has corrected this "error," so that the British version reads: "and I saw him too, looking up and wondering." This changes the entire meaning of the sentence and eradicates the metaphor.

A third word-substitution that changes meanings occurs towards the end of the novel, where officials view Gatsby’s recently-deceased body with what the original work describes as "unmoved eyes," but which have been changed into "shocked eyes" in the British version. While "unmoved eyes" could be seen as being frozen by shock and thus be a synonym of "shocked eyes," in the context of the text it would more likely mean "impassive" or "uncaring."

Some of the differences between the two versions of the novel may be due to the difference in dates of publication: the American version was printed in 1953, the British in 1994. For example, some of the hyphenized forms like "motor-cycle" might have been written without a hyphen in a later edition. Despite what some purists may think, the language is forever changing. Words evolve, forms arise and die from use. The word "good-by" that occurs many times in the American version of the novel would look strange in a modern text, although it’s still understandable – it is still less than eighty years from when the novel was first published, and less than fifty years from the printing of the American version used for this paper.

There is yet one more category to consider: terms and expressions that could have been translated due to an existing and more widely used equivalent in British English, but were not; and terms used in the original work that are distinctly British. Examples of these were more difficult to find, but there were some. On page 39, there is a mention of a "station wagon." The normal equivalent for this in British English would be an "estate car," but for some reason the U.S. term was not converted to the British form in this case.

Also, on the same page (39), the term "fortnight" is used. This expression is purely British, derived from "fourteen nights", or in other words "two weeks", as it is usually expressed in American usage. The expression was used in the story narration, not as part of the speech of a character. If it had been used by Gatsby, who was "an Oxford man," instead of in the narration, the British expression would have seemed more natural. But in the narration it simply raises one more question involving American and British English in The Great Gatsby.

---

Author Notes

1. Curiously, the U.S. Scribner's trade edition and Book Club edition both gave only the same original copyrighted date of publication (1924) and subsequent date of the copyright renewal (1953). Neither book indicated the date of printing of the respective edition; thus it cannot be determined what year each printing was actually from; or, with the Book Club edition, even which Book Club it was from. Both volumes had exactly the same minimal source information. The only other information available is that both U.S. versions were acquired prior to 1975, possibly as early as 1965.

   For classics such as Gatsby, however, the year of acquisition is not a reliable indicator of the year of printing; large press runs were used for each printing, with a continuous sales market.

   Thus this paper uses the copyright renewal date of 1953 to identify both U.S. versions, as an exact version number or year of printing is not available for either book. On the other hand, the two versions are different: the page numbering is different in the Book Club version from both the U.S. trade version and the British Penguin version, while it includes the same "Biloxi, Tennessee" "error" as on page 134 of the Penguin British version that had appeared (correctly) as "Biloxi, Mississippi" in the U.S. trade version.

2. The star (*) indicates inverted quotation markings in the text

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Works Cited

• Fitzgerald, F. Scott. The Great Gatsby. Reading, Berkshire: Penguin Books, 1924, 1994. [British Edition]

• - - - . The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1924, 1953. [U.S. Trade Edition] [see note]

• - - - . The Great Gatsby. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1924, 1953. [U.S. Book Club Edition]

• Hopkins, John D. American vs. British English: Basic Differences and Influences of Change. 12 September 2002 Update. FAST-US-1 Introduction to American English Course, Department of Translation Studies, University of Tampere.

• - - - . PP3B Text Layout and Usage Guidelines. 12 September 2002 Update. PP3B Basic English Professional Writing Course, Department of Translation Studies, University of Tampere.

• Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, 3^rd Edition. Bungay, Suffolk: Longman Dictionaries, 1978, 1995.

• Marckwardt, Albert H. American English. Rev. J. L. Dillard. New York: Oxford University Press, 1958, 1981.

• Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, 10^th Edition. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster Incorporated, 1993,2001.

• Noory, Samuel. Dictionary of Pronunciation, 2^nd Edition. New York: A. S. Barnes and Co., Inc., 1965.

• Olson, Edward. Differences in the U.K. and U.S. Versions of Harry Potter Books. 26 September 2002 Update. FAST-US-1 Introduction to American English Reference File, Department of Translation Studies, University of Tampere, Finland.

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Appendix: The Detailed List of Differences

	U.S. Scribner's Trade Edition	U.K. Penguin Edition
Page	Word or Phrase	Word or Phrase	Page
1	Criticizing	criticising	7
1	any one	anyone	7
5	a source of perpetual confusion	a source of perpetual wonder	11
5	Mr. Gatsby	Mr Gatsby	11
6	savors	savours	12
6	anticlimax	anti-climax	12
6	took your breath away;	took your breath away:	12
7	French windows	french windows	13
8	rosy-colored	rosy-coloured	14
12	out onto a rosy-colored porch	out on to a rosy-coloured porch	18
13	the evening, too, would be over	the evening too would be over	19
13	‘The Rise of the Colored Empires’ *	"The Rise of the Coloured Empires" *	19
15	I said	I began	21
16	gayety	gaiety	22
18	broke off ceasing to compel my attention	broke off, ceasing to compel my attention	24
18	The Saturday Evening Post	the Saturday Evening Post	24
20	rumors/rumored	rumours/rumoured	26
21	gas-pumps	petrol-pumps	27
23	of men who	of ash-grey men, who	29
23	days under sun and rain	days, under sun and rain	29
24	restaurants	cafés	30
24	afternoon and when	afternoon, and when	30
25	surplus flesh	flesh	31
26	went toward the little office mingling immediately	went toward the little office, mingling immediately	32
26	color	colour	32
27	Up-stairs	Upstairs	33
27	gray	grey	33
28	weatherproof	weather-proof	34
28	Sunday afternoon that I wouldn’t have been surprised	Sunday afternoon. I wouldn’t have been surprised	34
28	Mrs. Wilson	Mrs Wilson	34
29	Town Tattle	Town Tattle	35
29	whiskey	whisky	35
31	hauteur	hauteur	36
31	appendicitis	appendicitus [typo]	37
32	down-stairs	downstairs	38
32	Montauk Point – The Gulls	"Montauk Point – The Gulls" *	38
33	George B. Wilson at the Gasoline Pump	"George B. Wilson at the Gasoline Pump"*	39
34	gypped out	gyped out [typo]	40
34	kike	kyke	40
35	that I had played no part in her past.	that I expected no affection.	41
35	"--the man came after it one day when he was out." She looked around to see who was listening. "’Oh, is that your suit?’ I said. ‘This is the first I ever heard about it.’--"	‘--the man came after it one day when he was out: "Oh, is that your suit?" I said. "This is the first I ever heard about it."--’	41
36	and I was him too, looking up and wondering.	and I saw him too, looking up and wondering.	42
37	tomorrow	to-morrow	42
37	discussing in impassioned voices whether	discussing, in impassioned voices, whether	43
38	halfway	half way	43
39	a crop of caterers	a corps of caterers	45
40	hair shorn in strange new ways	hair bobbed in strange new ways	46
45	country-side	countryside	51
45	English oak	English Oak	51
46	Claude	Claud	52
47	the Third Division (WWI)	the First Division (WWI)	53
47	the ninth machine-gun battalion (WWI)	the Twenty-eighth Infantry (WWI)	53
47	the Seventh Infantry (WWI)	the Sixteenth (WWI)	53
48	favor	favour	54
48	just as far as	just so far as	54
48	roughneck	rough-neck	54
49	introduced himself, a butler	introduced himself a butler	55
49	"I think he killed a man," and	‘I think he killed a man’, and	55
50	formed with Gatsby’s head for one link	formed for Gatsby’s head for one link	57
52	tonight	to-night	58
53	good-by	good-bye	59
54	tire	tyre	60
58	lighted cigarettes outlined unintelligible gestures	lighted cigarettes made unintelligible circles	64
61	timetable	time-table	67
63	Russell	Russel	68
63	The Dewers	The Dewars	69
64	today	to-day	70
64	lifting work or rigid sitting in youth	lifting work in youth	70
64	six	half a dozen	70
66	two machine-gun detachments	my machine-gun battalion	72
69	southeastern	south-eastern	75
69	somber	sombre	75
69	Wolfsheim	Wolfshiem	75
76	the Armistice	the armistice	82
78	tongue, and, moreover, you	tongue and, moreover, you	84
79	little girls	children	84
89	neighboring	neighbouring	95
89	while occasionally willing to be serfs	while willing, even eager, to be serfs	95
92	odor	odour	97
92	Restoration Salons	Restoration salons	98
92	an Adam study	an Adam’s study	98
93	many-colored	many coloured	99
95	a sport shirt	a ‘sport shirt’	101
99	a seventeen-year-old boy	a seventeen year-old boy	105
100	soft-mindedness	softmindedness	106
100	the turgid sub or suppressed journalism	the turgid journalism	106
109	shadows, that	shadows, who	114
109	they’re	they are	115
119	molding	moulding	124
119	some one	someone	125
126	parlor	parlour	132
128	Biloxi, Mississippi	Biloxi, Tennessee	134
128	aluminum	aluminium	134
133	rancor	rancour	139
139	motorcycle	Motor-cycle	145
149	stratum	strata	155
161	pneumatic	penumatic [typo]	167
166	unmoved eyes	shocked eyes	172
168	splendor	splendour	174
182	orgiastic	orgastic	188

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Last Updated 25 September 2006