this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
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In most cases, the American spelling of English words compared to the rest-of-the-world spelling is pretty much a wash. A matter of personal preference.
But "metre" is a hill I will die on. "Metre" and "meter" mean different things, and by spelling them both "meter", as the Americans do, you’re just making communication worse.
Also gas which can either be petrol or natural gas.
In America "gas" is short for gasoline, which is petrol.
It's still shit because our lazy asses do still call both types "gas", but there is a distinction.
No... Gas is sort for "gasoline", which is a refined byproduct of patroleum.
Gasoline is "refined petroleum used as fuel for internal combustion engines."
Petrol is short for "patroleum", which is a product you should never put in your car.
Originally, yes. So were aspirin, heroin, kerosene, hovercraft, linoleum, and a bunch of other common words.
The brand was cazeline, according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gasoline#Etymology
It is not. "Gasoline" is what Brits should call the substance they put into their vehicles. Petroleum is not what goes in them, that is just an unrefined version of gasoline.
Edit: Petroleum, not patroleum.
ftfy
Oops, good catch! My mobile spell-check tool (swiftkey) seems to miss a lot... no idea why. It never used to do this...
Can also be a state of matter.
Or a digestion issue
Or a great time
I find this one funny, and it's a great response to the above. Petroleum is an unrefined product. It makes no sense for the Brits to call gasoline by that name.
Here's my hill to die on: If two words are pronounced the same way, thay should be spelled the same was. That whole -re/-er and -le/-el this is needlessly confusing
The thing is, while "meter" and "metre" are pronounced the same, when you use them in compound words they're not. Thermometer or odometer are pronounced with stress on the second syllable (the syllable immediately prior to "meter"), but kilometre and centimetre are pronounced with the stress on the third syllable ("MEtre").
Kilometer has the same stressed syllable as odometer in American English.
Easier just to distinguish pronunciation as -ometer vs -meter.
But kilometre and thermometer both have ometer
Right, and in most American dialects they are pronounced the same. Whereas Centimeter is pronounced differently and does not have an "ometer"
We'll continue having fun with american pronunciation on another day. Today, we're taking care of the imperial(istic?) system
Yes, and they're pronounced the same in the US.
I see metre and my brain says Meet-ray at best met-reh
If there's anything learning another language has taught me, it's that most languages (including subsets) are full of seemingly inane rules.
At least Americans have a great excuse: Freedom to do whatever we want.
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