Theatre or theater. re/er spelling in English

K

Karky

2
So.. my book has worded this so friggin weird I can't figure out which is what.

does GA (general American) use er, or does RP ("BBC English") use er?

I think GA does, but I need to be sure. Hopefully evo can answer this since he's an English teacher, but I figured I'd post it here since a lot of people might know.
 
Either is correct and both are common in general American

From wikipedia:
Theater is the prevailing American spelling and is used by America's national theater as well as major American newspapers such as the New York Times (theater section) to refer to both the dramatic arts as well as to buildings where performances take place; yet theatre is also current, witness Broadway and The New Yorker. In American English, theatre is particularly common in the two aforementioned uses. Americans also often make the distinction of using theater in reference to cinema, (e.g. movie theater) while using theatre when speaking of stage productions.[citation needed] Some places in the United States have "Centre" in their names (i.e. Rockville Centre, New York), named both before and after spelling reform, and there are very occasional uses of "Center" in England [4]).
 
all this time and I could have wikipediaed it.. figures :p I figured I'd just get a lot of history about theaters and stuff like that :p
 
Yeah.. and I gotta know all about them and quite a few more by Friday (exam) :p

The hard part is "se" and "ce" words. Like advice/advise (the s is the verb and c is the noun) and "pratctise/practice" where the British typically treat it as advice, but in America they typically write it with c for both. then there is "licence/license" which is the same as advice in Britain but in the US they spell it the same way all the time, only now with an S.

Then there's defence, offence, pretence.. where the C variant is used in Britain while the S variant is used in the USA.

Canadians tend to prefer the British spellings here except for practice (which they treat in the verb/noun way)

None of these are set in stone, so if you're from a country and write something differently than I just said, don't come knocking on my door.

I made it all the way to the "offence... " part without looking in my book :D
 
I never really thought that much about that, or why that is. Of course, I don't speak English, I speak Texan. :p - and that's a whole other thing entirely.

Wone-go git sumpn eat?

Cain't. Fixin'uh go ov'air momenems.
 
deschain said:
Wone-go git sumpn eat?
Want to go get something to eat?

Cain't. Fixin'uh go ov'air momenems.I can't. I'm about to go over to my mom's
Click to expand...


about to = fixing to = fixin'uh (one word)

over there = ov'air or ov'arr (depending on how deep the accent)


parent's home = mom and them's = momenems (also in reference to asking about one's family
"Howz yur momenem? = How is your family?"

Want to go = wanna go = wone-go (pronounced like woe)

----
aunt is commonly pronounced ain't, or ant if we are being proper

People from other parts of the country can barely understand us, unless we are "talkin good".


----
That's if you're speaking to someone from the rural East/Southeast Texas region.
 
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HAHAHA.

I have two accents. One I use where I live (it's more suburban, middle class) and one when I'm in my hometown w/ my family (more country/rural) about 65 miles from where I live. Even my more "city-fied" accent would sound insanely country to you. I don't really realize I'm doing it though.

Like here, I would refer to someone's "ant" - but at home, I have an "Ain't Sissy".

It's a good thing I don't know how to post stuff on YouTube. Besides, I wouldn't know what to say anyhow.
 
just read something from a random place! C'mon! It would be fun! :D just create an account on youtube and follow the instructions! :D
 
I'll just put it this way. I have absolutely no need for the subtitles on that story, b/c that man has much less of an accent than my Papaw, by a long shot.
 
I can't see that vid because my media player is ****ed..

so post a vid of you talking already! :D
If you do it, I'll post a video of me speaking Norwegian :D
 
deschain said:
HAHAHA.

I have two accents. One I use where I live (it's more suburban, middle class) and one when I'm in my hometown w/ my family (more country/rural) about 65 miles from where I live. Even my more "city-fied" accent would sound insanely country to you. I don't really realize I'm doing it though.

Like here, I would refer to someone's "ant" - but at home, I have an "Ain't Sissy".

It's a good thing I don't know how to post stuff on YouTube. Besides, I wouldn't know what to say anyhow.
Click to expand...

haha, One generation back my family comes from the hills of Kentucky. I have a pic of my family in Owsley County Kentucky in 1895 standing in front of a log cabin...and I still live close enough to know Louisville is pronounced Lou-A-Vull
 
After the Revolutionary war Daniel Webster decided it was time to 'simplify' English spelling. His idea was that it'd make it easier for the common man as well as put more distance between the US and England. Thus -er not -re, -og not -ogue, -or not -our, gray not grey, etc. He actually wanted to go a step further and remove all silent letters i.e. 'knee' would become 'nee' and 'love' would become 'luv' , but he was voted down.

'RP' by the way means 'received pronunciation' which in the UK is the BBC acccent and in the US is considered the standard accent found in Iowa which is also that of our newscasters.
 
philsaigon said:
After the Revolutionary war Daniel Webster decided it was time to 'simplify' English spelling. His idea was that it'd make it easier for the common man as well as put more distance between the US and England. Thus -er not -re, -og not -ogue, -or not -our, gray not grey, etc. He actually wanted to go a step further and remove all silent letters i.e. 'knee' would become 'nee' and 'love' would become 'luv' , but he was voted down.

'RP' by the way means 'received pronunciation' which in the UK is the BBC acccent and in the US is considered the standard accent found in Iowa which is also that of our newscasters.
Click to expand...

isn't GA (General American) the "standard" American variety? That's what we learn here anyhow.. Though I wouldn't doubt it if someone spoke RP some places in America, since America does have pretty strong connections with Britain, language wise.
 
I've never actually heard the term GA, that may refer to grammar/spelling/pron while RP(received pronunciation) is only describing pronunciation. There's British RP and American RP (and Aus, NZ...). No native American would speak Brit RP and many wouldn't even speak American RP, but rather have a regional accent. As far as English as a second language, it pretty much depends on the country as to whether they prefer American pronunciation or British. For example in the Czech Rep they prefer British English because of the EU. Here in VN they don't care either way. I'd guess Mexicans would want US. I think in terms of grammar and spelling most language learning texts tend to be put out by British publishers so more often than not language learners follow those rules.

For your paper or whatever you should be able to use whichever of the two spellings you prefer, but you might want to be consistent. Probably safer to go with the Brit.
 
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