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.

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[–] 62 points 4 months ago (29 children)

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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  • [–] 60 points 4 months ago (9 children)
  • [+] -8 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (6 children)

    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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  • [–] 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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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago* (last edited 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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  • [–] 25 points 4 months ago (16 children)

    . . . 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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  • [–] 31 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    Canada, which uses both

    græy /s

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  • [–] 11 points 4 months ago (8 children)

    Canadas english is weird

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

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  • [–] 26 points 4 months ago (5 children)

    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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  • [–] 10 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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