is it spelled "grey" or "gray"?

4 months ago by zeppo to c/nostupidquestions

why is this not one way or the other?

addendum: wow, thanks everyone. I truly never knew it was a British vs. American spelling thing.

gegil 213 points 4 months ago

Gray is a color, while grey is a colour.

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AA5B 4 points 4 months ago

Gray is the color of aluminum, grey is the colour of aluminium

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Valmond 2 points 4 months ago

Fantastic!

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Holytimes -19 points 4 months ago

I like mixing American and British spells to piss assholes off who have nothing better to do then attack people for their spelling choices.

Its very fun.

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TrickDacy 67 points 4 months ago

Than*

It's not British or American to just use the wildly-wrong word... That's just misusing words.

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Kolanaki 33 points 4 months ago

Maybe they actually mean "then." As in after they mix American and British spellings to piss people off with nothing better to do, they attack people for their spelling choice.

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toothpaste_sandwich 11 points 4 months ago

We all need hobbies.

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Bubbaonthebeach 2 points 4 months ago

So now we have a choice. Did Holytimes mean 1) piss off people who attack others (than), or 2) piss off people and attack people (then).

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kunaltyagi 1 point 4 months ago

I think we should have a thn. This give both meaning at the same time.

They prefer mixing spelling to piss people off compared to attacking people. That's why they attack people after pissing the people off.

¿Por que no los dos?

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TrickDacy -9 points 4 months ago
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allywilson 16 points 4 months ago

piss assholes off

piss off assholes

;-)

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Noel_Skum 4 points 4 months ago

Split infinitive? To boldly go or to go boldly? If it’s intelligible I’d let it slide - second languages and all that.

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SethranKada 4 points 4 months ago

Seems you succeeded, keep up the good work!

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Glytch 4 points 4 months ago

*arseholes

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Primor 3 points 4 months ago

*essholas

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fullsquare 121 points 4 months ago

grey - 🇬🇧 english (traditional)

gray - 🇺🇸 english (simplified)

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lonefighter 35 points 4 months ago

This is correct, but for some reason in my head I think of gray as warm toned (like with yellow or brown undertones) and grey as cool toned (like with blue or purple undertones).

I have no idea why my brain has decided this is the way.

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zakobjoa 8 points 4 months ago

What?! It's exactly the opposite, obviously!

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MajorasTerribleFate 2 points 4 months ago

You say this, and while I have never considered it in these terms before, it is obviously true to me.

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nonentity 18 points 4 months ago

gray - 🇺🇸 english (simplified)

grey - 🇬🇧 english (traditional)

gr*y - 🇦🇺 english (explicit)

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trackball_fetish 17 points 4 months ago
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Cethin -2 points 4 months ago

Fun fact: southern Americans speak English more traditionally than anyone else. The British have fucked up the pronunciation so hard at this point. Their spelling is typically more traditional though, yeah.

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Kobibi 2 points 4 months ago

People say this a lot but it's just not true

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Cethin 3 points 4 months ago

That doesn't actually say that it isn't the closest to a classical British accent. It only says it's diverged from the modern one. Yeah, it isn't the same as the classical British accent, but I believe it preserves more of the characteristics than other English accents have. They've all diverged, but some less than others.

IIRC, there's an island that's very isolated in the US who's accent is as close as possible to a classic British accent, but it's a population of maybe a few dozen people, if that even at this point.

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quick_snail 0 points 4 months ago

Due to brain damage

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Codpiece -2 points 4 months ago

No, it’s evolved unlike American that had to be simplified for the general population.

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TheFermentalist 65 points 4 months ago

E is the European version, A is the American version. This sounds trite, but is true, and makes it simple to know which one to use

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Codpiece 64 points 4 months ago

E is English. A is American.

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quick_snail 3 points 4 months ago

This makes the Scottish very mad

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Codpiece 2 points 4 months ago

I’m sorry.

But the Scottish want to claim something English as theirs? When did that start?

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Kalothar -9 points 4 months ago

Are you being like pedantic or just trying to make it more simple?

(Otherwise North America and specially the United States has the majority of English speakers in the world, so there is a realistic distinction between U.K. / European English and American English and both are equally correct evolutions of their English roots )

Edit: downvote all you want, but I was just asking for clarity

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quill7513 10 points 4 months ago

it's a mnemonic to help people remember, not pedantry

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akwd169 3 points 4 months ago

English as in England, the country

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Codpiece 8 points 4 months ago

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MrScottyTay 1 point 4 months ago

Sadly because of learning materials and the media, a lot of mainland Europeans that learn English often learn American English mannerisms. I remember in college there was a girl everyone thought was American to begin with but she just happened to be Spanish.

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ohulancutash 1 point 4 months ago

Only if we’re very inclusive in our definition of “English”.

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Codpiece 0 points 4 months ago

I don’t know why you’re getting downvoted either.

To answer your question it’s neither and both. I can appreciate it might seem pedantic from an American point of view, but not from ours. It’s our language, created here and named after us, it doesn’t require the British/European prefix. It is simply English.

American, Canadian and Australian English should have suffixes as simplified variations of the default.

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adespoton 27 points 4 months ago

. . . Unless you’re in the majority of the English speaking world, which includes India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

Of course, grey is the appropriate spelling for all of those but Canada, which uses both.

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squirrel 32 points 4 months ago

Canada, which uses both

græy /s

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TrickDacy 8 points 4 months ago

That looks awesome though

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Uranus_Hz 5 points 4 months ago

“Both” in Canada is Gray and Gris

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aeronmelon 1 point 4 months ago

That’s what Seal’s rose was on.

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Nioxic 12 points 4 months ago

Canadas english is weird

Especially when it comes to measurements (weight, volume, mass, temperature)

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adespoton 28 points 4 months ago

What’s wrong with Canada’s weights and measures?

Everything is in SI units.

Unless you’re cooking, where heat is in Fahrenheit, solid measures are in cups teaspoons and tablespoons (but liquids are in litres and weights are in grams).

Or in construction, where you work in feet and yards. Or measuring a person’s height.

But while someone might be 6’ tall, their stride length will be in metres, as will their arm span.

So yeah; simple. It’s not like Canada has tons of people weighing in tonnes.

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Rentlar 11 points 4 months ago

A "Pint" of beer served commercially in Canada must be 20 imperial (UK) ounces (aka ~568 mL), with a 2.5% margin of error permitted within the law, unlike a US pint (16 US fl oz ~473mL).

Just for fun, "Une pinte" of alcohol in French served commercially is "a quart" of alcohol in English which is double that value.

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jqubed 3 points 4 months ago

My in-laws in Quebec get weighed in pounds

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Holytimes 3 points 4 months ago

Canada said fuck it we use what makes the most sense for the scope and scale at hand. And then cherry picked everything.

Unironically if you get your head out of your fucking ass for two seconds and stop being a fan boy for measurement systems.

Canada has arguably the best worst solution! Its fantastic! And awful! I love it.

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otter 10 points 4 months ago

No need to downvote this comment

Even canadians agree that we have a weird mix of different systems in play

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nondescripthandle 1 point 4 months ago

Hey at least you're not still measuring weight in stone. Nothing makes me roll my eyes quicker. Oh you're ten stone? How neat im 2 boulder and 3 pebble.

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Venator 10 points 4 months ago

Also depends if it's someone's last name... 😅

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adarza 1 point 4 months ago

henry gray, the author of the iconic medical text.

albert grey, former governor general (ca). the grey cup (cfl championship game and trophy) takes its name from him.

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fizzle 4 points 4 months ago

Australia uses both, but grey is "correct".

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Zwuzelmaus 2 points 4 months ago

Canada, which uses both.

Is it Caneda then, or Cenada?

;-)

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myster0n 7 points 4 months ago

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tyler 6 points 4 months ago

Americans spell it whatever way they want.

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DebatableRaccoon 2 points 4 months ago

Yup. Their freedom bone twitches otherwise.

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OwOarchist 2 points 4 months ago

But in certain circumstances, the Europeans will still use it with an a. Specifically, when referring to the color of a horse.

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TheFermentalist 3 points 4 months ago

Wasn’t aware of that

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jenesaisquoi 25 points 4 months ago

It is spelled grey in correct English. In the USA, they like spelling it gray.

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SuiXi3D 4 points 4 months ago

All language is made up. There is no ‘correct’.

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jenesaisquoi 7 points 4 months ago

Standardisation of language is not pointless. Shared standards serve concrete functions:

  • When 8 billion people write "colour" the same way, you don't pause to decode variants
  • Technical manuals, legal documents, medical instructions need precision: ambiguity costs lives
  • Cross-generational understanding: Shakespeare's English is already hard without adding modern variation to the mix
  • Standardized spelling keeps homophones distinct (their/there/they're)

Standardisation of language isn't about one version being inherently right. It's about shared agreement that enables function at scale.

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SuiXi3D 5 points 4 months ago

And it's agreed that both Grey and Gray are acceptable variants, and they will be right up until they aren't for one arbitrary reason or another.

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SingularEye 1 point 3 months ago

shakespeare spelled it "color" multiple times

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jenesaisquoi 1 point 3 months ago

Case in point for his English being hard to understand

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kunaltyagi 1 point 4 months ago

Here to give you a boost away from the downvotes.

Lawsuits are won and lost over grammar and spellings. Constitutional crisis happen over the question: is the text to be understood in the time period of writing or reading (because the meaning of words shifts over time)

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Auli 0 points 4 months ago

Bullshit. Yes there is.

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Nemo 3 points 4 months ago

No we don't. Grey is the only way.

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Forester 1 point 4 months ago

Buddy we got the spelling from you before you decided to deep throat the French and copy their phonics and corrupt your own spellings.

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jenesaisquoi 0 points 4 months ago

I'm not British.

Also, grey in French is gris so I'm not sure how that is relevant

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ohulancutash 0 points 4 months ago

1066?

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over_clox 21 points 4 months ago

I think it's a USA vs European English thing.

I prefer the 'grey' spelling though, even though 'gray' is most common in the states.

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SorteKanin 3 points 4 months ago

European English

Is this a thing? Isn't it just "British English"?

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ITGuyLevi 2 points 4 months ago

Nah, I think that was part of the terms of Brexit, given more people in the EU speak it than in Briton they get to claim the weird spellings... At least they let the Brits keep there combined use of metric and imperial.

/s if it wasn't obvious

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degenerate_neutron_matter 13 points 4 months ago
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bstix 6 points 4 months ago

In all the languages that have the letter æ , exactly none of them use it for that colour.

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lillardfair 13 points 4 months ago

I know it's an American vs other English speaking countries thing, but as an American I can honestly never remember which one we are. I always used to look it up, but now I just shoot from the hip and assume I'm right, which feels the most American way to approach it.

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tyler 8 points 4 months ago

I think that’s what most Americans do. I don’t think I’ve thought about how to spell it in decades. I just spell it both ways depending on the day.

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shyguyblue 1 point 4 months ago

When I was in high school, a girl passed me a note:

Are you gray?

Never forgot the spelling ;)

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olafurp 12 points 4 months ago

Yes

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spacegoat 8 points 4 months ago

I know that this is “no stupid questions” but it boggles the mind that people post in forums when the answer is either yes/no, or a single sentence explanation available in a web search.

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zeppo 5 points 4 months ago

we should just not have Lemmy at all and only read news articles, wikipedia and talk to ourselves

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Waraugh 6 points 4 months ago

I’m glad you asked. This is something I never realized how often I have brief flashes of curiosity about before I yolo it and never bothered looking up. As soon as I saw the title I was looking forward to reading what people had to say.

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spacegoat 3 points 4 months ago

I would argue that the purpose of Lemmy comments is dialogue, not for other users to be someone’s dictionary

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zeppo 1 point 4 months ago
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lastlybutfirstly 7 points 4 months ago

Gray in the US. Grey elsewhere.

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quick_snail 6 points 4 months ago

Yes

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Hiro8811 6 points 4 months ago

It's pronounced gay ya twats

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Kolanaki 4 points 4 months ago

Either way is correct.

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kibblebits 3 points 4 months ago

Grea

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adarza 3 points 4 months ago

for the color i use "a" always.. but was taught either one was acceptable, unless it's a name (proper noun).

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Casuls_Die_Thrice 3 points 4 months ago

Yes

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forestbeasts 2 points 4 months ago

Depends who you ask.

We know someone named Gray and a different person named Grey!

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LodeMike 2 points 4 months ago

Gray in the U.S. presumably because a was cheaper than e for typesetting

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content_educator_94 4 points 4 months ago

Why would a be cheaper than e

They're both vowels lol

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LodeMike 3 points 4 months ago

Source: I made it up.

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PragmaticOne 1 point 4 months ago

‘Grey’ refers to the colour.

But ‘grey’ and ‘gray’ can also be surnames.

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Zomg 1 point 4 months ago

Depends on where you live. There are American and European spellings for some words. IE color vs colour

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TropicalDingdong 1 point 4 months ago
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Treczoks 0 points 4 months ago

"Grey" is British English, "Gray" is simplified English AKA American.

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CombatWombat 0 points 4 months ago

Gray is the correct spelling 🦅🇺🇸🎆🎸🤼‍♂️🍖

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EtherTide 20 points 4 months ago

Ironic coming from someone with wombat in their name 🇦🇺

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CombatWombat 29 points 4 months ago

I'll tell you a secret: I don't actually feel very 🦅🇺🇸🎆🎸🤼‍♂️🍖

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