Why do Americans spell words like "theatre" with "er" instead of "re" at the end?

@ffony I understood that's a feature of the Cockney dialect?

@helenS It is. They squeeze the "t" sound out of words like "bottle". They say "bo'l". I know that doesn't look right but I couldn't think how else to spell it. Lol :)

@helenS The Cockney dialect among others.

@Kenworth4954 Flirting so soon???😷

@whowasthatmaskedman we learned gooder 👍

@tenente Ahh.. A Yale man...😷

@Soossie but they were when They came to America so at what point did they change it all? I’ve always been curious about this

@Jenny1234

Good question dear Jenny … good question .. 🤗🌸🌸

@SW-User Bless the Canadian education system for completing its English training to world standards..😷

@whowasthatmaskedman sometimes I wish they’d build a wall around us 😌

😂

@SW-User I get it. But on the positive side, they do make you look good..😷

@BijouPleasurette US and imperial, British based, gallons are different sizes...i can't remember the exact difference

@Convivial I US Gallon = 0.833 UK (Imperial) Gallon

In modern units used everywhere except the USA, respectively 3.79 and 4.55 litres.

Note that spelling:

Litre and metre are not English but French (the units were invented in 18C France). Easy to remember the correct spelling: "A meter measures, a metre is a measure".

The US Gallon seems to have been an ancient vintner's unit, when many trades had their own "standards" and even units; long before any real attempts to create simple, universal weights and measures. This would be logical because the early settlers had to use casks to carry food and drinking-water on their ships, for their long trans-Atlantic voyages.

@ArishMell thanks for that

@BijouPleasurette Yes, the British way. Just saw a video from a site that tells people how to speak "correct" English that claims there is no "r" pronounced in the word "core", that it should be said "cahw" -- the lady who teaches the lessons sounds like a poncy upper-class wanna be to me. ;)

?@ChipmunkErnie She's wrong. I'm doing it now: coRrrre - see?

@ffony We pronounce the "r" when it's followed by a word beginning with a vowel. "For example", for example. We sound the "r" on the end of "for". But when we say "For goodness' sakes" (or something more vulgar than that) we don't sound the "r".

@ninalanyon The "jail" spelling was 1600s. Singular century. Previously it was "jaile" and other spellings. Not to be confused with the other etymology route of "gaol". Regardless the sentiment is the same, USA simplified spellings to help the illiterate.

@Gumba1000 Even if you nitpick about the final e it still predates the US by well over a century.

@ninalanyon It is you that was nitpicking. If you weren't nitpicking, you'd have noticed the other information.

@ffony Sometimes we get two different words with different spellings that sound the same but have totally different meanings. Getting them mixed up makes it difficult for people to understand each other's meaning. I think it does matter.

@Guardian I thought the French blamed Britain, not America, for its imported English terms, though they import American as well as British ones.

After all, France and Britain are neighbours with a lot of business, social and leisure travel between the two countries.

I don't know which country coined "week-end", but have noticed in radio interviews, instruction-leaflets supplied with imported goods, etc., that many people around the world speak American, not British, English - even when their countries officially despise the USA. Much of that is due to the USA flooding the world with its films, TV shows and pop music.

Australia, a former UK colony and now a member of the Commonwealth, seems to think herself an odd mix of EU and USA: speaking a possibly-American-influenced version of English, using metric units and calling its currency "dollars". Though of course as the USA is now the only nation not using metric units in general life, Australia is not really copying anyone in particular there.

@ArishMell As a child, I witnessed Canadians using more British English, but as I have grown, Canadians have now switched to more American English. We of course, Canadianize our English with our own ideas, including Franglais, a blend of Québec French and Canadian English!

@Guardian I can understand that, with being the USA's next-door neighbours. Has there been any traffic the other way, with the USA importing some British-isms?

@ninalanyon Does Webster's Dictionary include etymology? That seems an unknown quantity in the American dialect.

Hence, a pedofile actually has an unhealthy obsession with feet, not children (that would be paedophile); and the US geologists who ordered the world to spells the Cainozoic (a particular geological time span) Cenozoic, reversed its meaning from full to devoid, of life!

It does not explain another American trait though: "simplifying" some words by their spellings, but complicating others needlessly. Hence even axing central syllables (e.g. labor-tory, alumin-um) but adding clumsy extensions elsewhere.

E.g., inspiring to inspira-tional, so three to six syllables - and odder still, burgle to [i]burglarise (probably "burglarize").

@ArishMell If we have to have burglarise it should be spelled with an s because the root word is not derived from Greek.

@ninalanyon Good point! I think Americans go by pronunciation not origins.

@Bignakedguy bugging you to where?

@Justmeraeagain Is that just you again?

@ffony I believe so

@tenente Yes, we make our own way!