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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[–] 201 points 4 months ago (17 children)

Gray is a color, while grey is a colour.

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  • [+] -17 points 4 months ago (14 children)
  • [–] 65 points 4 months ago* (8 children)

    Than*

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

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  • [–] 31 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (7 children)

    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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  • [–] 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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  • [+] -9 points 4 months ago (4 children)
  • [–] 5 points 4 months ago (3 children)

    It’s pretty clear. Not sure how you could have issues with it.

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  • [+] -6 points 4 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)
  • [+] -1 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (2 children)
  • [–] 4 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    Bro, do you understand what the difference between "than" and "then" is? Is English not your first language? You're the only one who doesn't seem to understand what I commented.

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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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  • [–] 14 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    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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  • [–] 12 points 4 months ago
    [+] 11 points 4 months ago (1 child)
  • [–] 22 points 4 months ago (2 children)

    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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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (1 child)

    European English

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

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  • [–] 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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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago

    Gray in the US. Grey elsewhere.

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  • [–] 7 points 4 months ago

    It's pronounced gay ya twats

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  • [–] 6 points 4 months ago
    [–] 4 points 4 months ago

    Either way is correct.

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    [–] 3 points 4 months ago
    [+] 8 points 4 months ago (3 children)
  • [–] [S] 4 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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

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  • [–] 5 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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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    Depends who you ask.

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

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago

    ‘Grey’ refers to the colour.

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

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  • [–] 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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  • [–] 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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

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  • [–] 2 points 4 months ago (2 children)

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

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  • [–] 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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  • [–] 0 points 4 months ago

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

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