English Question/Exam for everyone.

@sohmageek both are correct.

@sohmageek Well since it's capitalized I guess it's a name and they can spell it any way they want. If you mean the color gray is the way I spell it. Virginia

@sohmageek Grey: I searched through all my text messages going back to 2011 and I use "grey" a lot more than "gray" (my guess would've been closer to 50/50).

@sohmageek It's regional

@sohmageek I think "grey" is dominant in the UK and I prefer it, but "gray" is standard American English. I consider myself a Montanan and Northwestern American (I was born and raised in Eastern Washington and Montana; FWIW, college in Missouri) , but I temporarily reside in Texas.

@sohmageek
Going w either.

Stupidville, Texas (tiny suburb of W Buttfuck)

Also too old to be embarrassed by occasional lapses. We ancient have our privileges.

@sohmageek For the color, gray. For the Christian, Grey. NW Louisiana here.

@sohmageek There's enough out now... I prefer grey... Why I don't know I don't like gray... it looks so meh... and not a good way like the lovely folks here.
But on the other side... one could argue craydads aren't creydads... so... I don't know... Maybe I'm a little British and I don't know it...

@sohmageek they aren't craydads or creydads, around here they're crawfish. Or mudbugs if you're trying to be cute.

Do y'all eat them up your way?

@djslack we get them seasonally up here. I've had them once. I'd love to try again. My wife spent most of her childhood in Florida. So... It's her family's thing :) I love em!

@sohmageek
N'awlins

@djslack they're crawdads here

@sohmageek Gray..at least here in my little southern town of Williamson, Ga.

@sohmageek gray is correct in the US, grey is correct in the UK - Cincinnati

@sohmageek it's my understanding that grey is used more commonly in England and gray in the States. Having said that, I prefer grey. I'm from CT, originally and live in CA.

@sohmageek Interested in @AnnaB response, as I learned the color as grey growing up. Born and raised in California, but both parents from New England (and lineage harking from what is now collectively the UK).

@sohmageek Gray is how we spell it in the Kansas/Missouri border region.

@sohmageek Canada. And "grey". Tea, Earl Grey, hot.

@sohmageek

@sohmageek I asked my sister, an artist, why there are two spellings of grey, and she says because gray is for cool tones while grey is for the warmer tones. I use grey. CA usa

@sohmageek that's not just phonetic... they actually spell it differently outside US and Canada.

@sohmageek I pronounce it the first way.

@sohmageek I dunno, I didn't read this one

@sohmageek a-LOO-min-um

@sohmageek
1st. Just a guess. Chemistry was a long time ago, far away galaxy, all that.

@katylava yes I know. But which do you use/prefer :) just like color colour. :)

@f00l The Brits have different pronunciations for scientific terms too. My advisor trained with a Brit and we used to have pronunciation debates.

@sohmageek i prefer to say it the north american way. i like hearing it the other way too though.

@sohmageek Aluminum. Although my friends from Trinidad had drinks from aluminium cans.

@sohmageek I'm with @joelmw a-loo-min-um and half the time it sounds like I'm say a luminum can

I'm with @katylava on this one. I don't think I could ever adjust to say aluminium, but I like hearing it. It sounds like a more interesting element.

@sohmageek I use the first pronunciation, but my grown son spent his formative years steeped in English television and still uses the second (along with "torch" for flashlight and "boot" for trunk, etc.).

@sohmageek a-LOO-min-um. I have a friend in Australia who recorded himself saying it and it was al-you-MIN-e-um. He also pronounces oregano incorrectly. :)

@Teripie you can add it to the dictionary

@therealjrn You know of course that the rats--er, mice--are the ones conducting the most profound experiments? DON'T PANIC, but hang on to your towel.

@Lotsofgoats I buy tennis shoes for my son who plays tennis. Every time they ask me what kind. The ones for tennis, please. Otherwise I would have asked for sneakers.

@sammydog01 sounds almost as bad as ordering a coke and then being asked what kind

I'm looking at you, Texas

@Lotsofgoats My grandma called them "tenny shoes".

@Lotsofgoats Diet, Caffeine free, Caffeine free diet, Mexican(Real Sugar), Cherry, Cherry Diet.....

@Lotsofgoats And we call them gym shoes.

@Lotsofgoats A Pepsi-flavored coke, damnit!

@brhfl
That would be called New Coke.

@Lotsofgoats How about trainers? I think they're called trainers in the UK?

@djslack tenny runners here

@Lotsofgoats I say tennis shoes and Coke for all carbonated drinks..yea I know, I'm going, I'm going

@Lotsofgoats

@Collin1000 I know, can you believe how many people are wrong?

@mehbee

@Lotsofgoats
Language functions using shared assumptions and consensus.
Consensus is nearly extinct.
So fuck language.

@Lotsofgoats Grew up in California calling them sneakers. Don't think that is result of New England parents since they'd moved to the West before sneakers became popular.

Hey there, @Lotsofgoats. I love you, buddy, but

I call them tennis shoes, 'cause that's how I was raised. The tennis shoes I actually wear are running shoes or walking shoes, so sometimes I call them that. When I'm going to the gym, I may refer to them as gym shoes. If I'm in a mood, I'll call them "sneaks," which is only slightly more weird than "sneakers"--but because it's a little more weird, it's actually fun.

@joelmw YOU WERE FED LIES AS A CHILD, DID YOU EVER EVEN PLAY TENNIS EVER IN YOUR ALLEGED "TENNIS SHOES" ????????

@Lotsofgoats I did. But you're making the common mistake of taking the origin of a word too seriously.

@Lotsofgoats What kind of Coke? Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Coke Life…

@f00l That’s what we get for building skyscrapers. Didn’t learn the lesson the first time.

@sohmageek Sugarbagel.

@sohmageek doughnuts are made with dough, not do.

@Lotsofgoats
Either. Donut/Doughnut is not a fancy dress-up word.

If your prof makes a fuss, whatever. Why would even a prof care?

@sohmageek smultring

@Lotsofgoats your spelling is correct only if they're also made with nuts, like almond biscotti

@WTFhqwhgads I think the etymology is something like, the first 'doughnuts' didn't have holes, and resembled a nut made of dough.

@sohmageek Donut all the way! I feel that the shorter spelling reflects the fast food nature of donuts nowadays.

@sohmageek Doughnut, but only if it's Krispy Kreme..otherwise it's neither.

@justan79 also shortening spellings is the american way

@brhfl I think it was "doughnought" - as in "dough in the shape of a zero" or something like that. But too long to spell.

@sohmageek I use both, depending. Does no one else routinely refer to them as dog nuts?

@sohmageek Donut, because laziness.

@brhfl Actually I think it’s the other way. They did have holes, resembling a nut.

@moondrake That sweet, sweet necro post made me think I drunk posted last night (had no idea what the email could’ve been in reference to!)

@sohmageek
Theater in the US unless someone wants to be diff or make a point.

But other English-speaking countries should do their own thing! Esp the UK, they kinda got First Claim.

@f00l Hey, what about the Greeks having first claim? PBS tells me that Aeschylus wrote the oldest surviving Greek play. And PBS spells it, "Theatre." http://www.pbs.org/empires/thegreeks/background/24b.html

@sohmageek theater=place to see movies. Theatre=place to see live performances

@justan79
I meant the UK folks have First Claim on the English word, not on the concept.

I suspect theater as a human activity is far older than the cave paintings at Lascaux.

@sohmageek The second, never seen it spelled the first way..but then I don't get out much.

@f00l Ah, Ok, that makes sense.

I tend to think of "theatre" as plays and "theater" as movies. Eastern United State

@sohmageek My husband used to work for a cinema chain that spelled it "theatre" in their franchise name and I find it very hard to spell it the more accepted way. Nowadays, I tend to make the distinction (when spellcheck reminds me) of "theatre" for live performance and "theater" for movies.

What @MsELizardBeth and @justan79 said, though I prefer theatre and will sometimes use it for a place I see movies, especially if they qualify as "film."

@sohmageek My friend teaches theatre in college. He has said that theatre refers to the art of performance, and a theater is the building.

@KDemo Let's call the whole thing off !

@ceagee

@KDemo One of my favorite lines, from a Valentine's card I bought my first wife--and maybe I've already mentioned this around here, because that's how much I love it--is, "I've got a haddock, but you've got a headache." Which is funny more than one way, if you think about it.

@mehbee
Local more peCAN but both are fine.

@mehbee Growing up in Northern Michigan it was Pee-cun. The big thing growing in my back yard here in Florida is a pa-Con tree.

@mehbee I eat puKAHNs. Pee cans are a road trip aid...

@mehbee I say, puKAHNs, like @thejackalope, though I frequently use the other pronunciations partly to mock southerners and partly just 'cause it's fun. Probably my favorite for fun is more like PEE-kn, where the last syllable almost isn't a syllable, but an extremely diminutive schwa--or, yeah, maybe actually, just like I've got it, directly conjoined to the k in front.

@mehbee puh-KAHN

@gio def "ahmonds"

@gio All-monds, all the way

@gio I say AL-monds or A-monds (not "ah"). Again, the latter is partly in fun.

@gio the second is fairly common because it's the correct pronunciation >__>

@gio I have a coworker who ostentatiously (to my ear) says "SALmun." I don't even know why. Maybe he thinks it's correct. Anyway, it drives me crazy too, @simssj.

@gio Canada. Silent L.

@Lotsofgoats I have a stuffed animal named Prints. He's a black panther with a name to match my cat at the time, who was Princess. I didn't name her and never liked the name, so I came up with Prints to name him after her without giving him a stupid name.

Now my tiny domesticated house black panthers crawl in the fireplace and leave paw prints all over the place, so it seems even more fitting.

@Lotsofgoats Close...

@Mehrocco_Mole Western Canada (Saskatchewan) here. We say tuh-RON-no more or less. There is just a tiny hint, at most, of the second T.

@joelmw

@cj0e I love that movie. Two of my favorite actors there (playing the intellectuals of the group).

@joelmw - Yikes! Just iced tea for me, please. (Or is it ice tea)?

@KDemo A young friend showed me the malk video and at first I was only moderately amused. I swear, every time I watch that thing it gets funnier and funnier. It's got layers. It's a friggin' comic onion.

@KDemo I think both are acceptable, fwiw.

@joelmw - The video is really funny. I thought it was always milk, but after watching, I guess I've heard malk. Mawlk never.

@joelmw just as infuriating as the people who insist on sticking an r in the middle of wash. Used to have a pastor, last name Washburn, he always said it as "Warshburn" then theres the local commercials for the "4 seasons car warsh" they spelled it right on the signage, but always say it with that damn r....

@earlyre I don't know why, but that's hilarious.

@KDemo I don't recall ever actually hearing MALK or MAWLK other than in the video. But yeah, it's funny.

@earlyre I went to school in Missouri. . . .

• As you probably know, locals refer to it as miz-UR-uh. We just called it misery.
• There was a town named Nevada that THEY pronounced ne-VAY-duh.
• They had a Spokane (in Washington, SPO-CAN, where I used to live, is home of the Gonzaga Bulldogs) that they called spo-KAYN.

@joelmw ahh mizzurah... I remember my shock the first time i drove across that state, and saw that Rolla was actually spelled Rolla. I had always just assumed it was spelled Raleigh, or some such, and it was just another case of hick pronunciation...

@earlyre We had a Lima in New York- they pronounced it like the bean too. And when I traveled to Delaware I stayed in Newark- pronounced new-ARK.

@earlyre One version of the history of Rolla says that settlers named it after Raleigh but used the phonetic spelling.

@melwin see, that makes sense. a bunch of ozark hilljacks spelt it the best they could...

@melwin
That's awesome. Like those country folks who exaggerate the "i'm just a hick dumbass" act while they laugh at you and pocket your money.

@f00l They left Gravois Mills off this list. They pronounce it grav-OYS although in French I think it would be grav-WAH. And the word Ozarks comes from the French aux arcs. Missour-uhhh-ans can't speak French.

@melwin Vermont: Charlotte guess how they pronounce it? Shar-lot not like North Carolina or the web. 2 hard syllables.
St. Albans. A lot of the locals call it sn'albins 1 syllable.

Hey, I'm right! Might be a first.

@KDemo Par meh zon

@duodec - I think I'm pretty close to yours, but I usually hear it pronounced with more of a zh sound (Like the S in treasure).

@KDemo “parmeshawn” is just so affected. It’s Americans thinking they know an Italian word. (In Italy it would be parmigiano (par me JAHN oh). Translated into English it’s parmesan with a normal “s” sound.

@Ysmena2018

Not so much. No local affectation. Rather; Americans are not thinking they “know” anything; they are simply pronouncing the word as they’ve heard it pronounced all these years, including in advertising.

Local yokelism, perhaps. But zero affection.

And Americans who don’t come from Italian neighborhoods or Italian families, and who have not lived in Italy, seems to never (within my hearing, anyway) make the claim they they know how to pronounce Italian language words correctly.

@Ysmena2018 You time traveled from next year to our forum and this was the most important thing to say?

How is Bitcoin doing tomorrow? Who won the super bowl? What’s the world’s favorite cheese in 2018?

@KDemo I drive my friends crazy by pronouncing the 'l" in salmon. It’s just that “sammin” sounds like kid talk to me. “My mommy’s having sammin but I get basgetti!”

@moondrake

If your are the one cooking or hosting, eject or mock anyone elitist enough to object to your pronunciation preferences.

How wude.

If I were your guest, I would be happy to converse for hours in pidgin or pig-latin, if that were your preference. And I would feel honored to do it.

@f00l I mostly agree. I'm more fascinated by it. But I confess that if I already have reason to dislike and/or disrespect someone, I may use the way the pronounce something to mock them. I do it less and less lately. Also, the wife and I sometimes enjoy talking like hillbillies if ever we're walking through a WalMart. I know it's wrong, but it's so much fun.

The reality is that many "standard" and preferred pronunciations are technically incorrect, sometimes grossly so. And so much depends on where and whom you're from.

Much of my life I was mortified that I might be mispronouncing certain words. Then I finally realized that no matter how I pronounce it, according to someone, I am.

@joelmw
Walmart brings out the would-be punctilious connoisseur pretender in me, complete with faux exaggerated patience and sighs and arched eyebrows, as tho i'm too good for the place, or as tho i'm seriously concerned "bouquet and vintage" of some no-name tortillas.

But only in the far back wilderness of Walmart, it's just for a laugh. Up front i'm normal. I figure the floor staff and re-stockers and cashiers deserve that.

I only play hick if somone blows their own "superior standards" so hard in my direction that i cant breathe.

Most people i encounter are overworked, underpaid, and under-appreciated. I dont want to tax their patience with my childish inside jokes.

@f00l I wouldn't do it to mock the staff and would even be self-conscious if one of them heard. We do it to amuse ourselves.

My sister works at WalMart. But, yeah, even without that, everything you said.

@Collin1000
Ah yes. And there's George W Bush encountering the word "nuclear".

@f00l Here's an irony (and please note: I love Jimmy Carter, but this is funny):

@f00l Yeah, okay, Bush is worse, IMO (I mean we knew this to be true otherwise, but on this one too ).

@f00l Him and way too many other people. As a Nuclear Medicine Tech, I cringe far too often at the mispronunciation. I've asked people where the other 'u' is found in the word. Nuculer

@cinoclav Don't you mean, nuculrrrr. You've given some people too much credit. I've heard it without any hint of ear at the end.
Then again, I grew up around people who also said, "crick" for creek and "Warshington". Ugh.

@jaremelz
@cinoclav
@joelmw
@Collin1000
A friend, (admittedly not a fan of the Bush dynasty), upon hearing GW Bush pronounce "nuclear" asked,
"Nooookuler. Is that a radioactive type of nookie?"

@joelmw depends where you live and how many teeth you have.

@cranky1950
Urban : creek
Rural: crik

@joelmw Arroyo.

@joelmw Branch.

@joelmw Gulch.

@joelmw

@joelmw - I would have guessed HawMEED if you hadn't said otherwise.

@joelmw I'd have gone with Ha-Meed. This reminds of another interesting Arabic name, Said. Most would look at it as the common pronunciation 'sed' instead of the more proper 'sigh-eed' or 'sah-eed.'