this post was submitted on 31 Jul 2023
361 points (92.7% liked)
Memes
52432 readers
1337 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 6 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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.
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.