And a hood in the US is a bonnet in England...but a hood in England
is the roof in the US. The boot in England is the trunk of the car
and a boot in the US is what you kick your non-running British car with.
Small subtle differences in English. At least meter and metre are
close. I would have prefered to keep all of the original English
spellings that were cast aside years ago. But we don't.
This is a pointless discussion everyone....meter vs metre. Let's get
on with it.
At 10:47 2005-09-22, Bill Potts wrote:
Good translations, except for one.
Fender is not American for bumper, but for wing. Bumper is bumper in both
versions of English.
I used to make the same mistake many years ago, when I still lived in
England. We had a fender around our fireplace, which looked very much like a
car's bumper, so I assumed the American term "fender" referred to what we
called the bumper. It was only after I emigrated to Canada (in 1957) that I
discovered my error.
Bill Potts, CMS
Roseville, CA
http://metric1.org [SI Navigator]
>-----Original Message-----
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Behalf Of Tom Wade VMS Systems
>Sent: Thursday, September 22, 2005 02:24
>To: U.S. Metric Association
>Subject: [USMA:34604] Re: spelling
>
>
>
>>My point was not that I am advocating that all Americans should change to
>>the 'metre' spelling but rather the use of two different
>spellings comes to
>>us all at a considerable cost.
>
>But is this cost really necessary ? The most important point about the
>differences between American and British spelling is that the words are
>still mutually intelligible. We can see the spelling differences, but we
>know exactly what is being meant. In all the discussion forums I take part
>in which contain a mix of English speaking Americans & non-Americans, I
>have never seen a case where spelling causing confusion (apart from the
>occasional idiot who will try to insist that one is 'right' and the other
>'wrong').
>
>A far greater impediment is where totally different words are used, e.g.
>car parts trunk [boot], hood [bonnet], muffler [silencer], fender [bumper],
>or where the same word means something entirely different e.g. biscuit,
>chips. This has by far the potential to cause genuine confusion, and
>requires much more editorial effort to protect against. In comparison,
>trying to standardize (or even standardise) on spelling would make little
>or no difference.
>
>As for the metric issue, the spelling and pronunciation of the unit
>words (not the symbols) vary between languages and dialects. Thus if
>confusion is to be avoided, the symbols should be used in articles rather
>than the names.
>
>Finally, the object of this group is to promote the greater use of
>metric worldwide, particularly in the US. One of the main obstacles is
>the perception that metric is something 'foreign' being pushed on them.
>Trying to push British or French spelling conventions on metric units
>will simply reinforce this perception, and make metric conversion
>harder.
>
>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>Tom Wade | EMail: tee dot wade at eurokom dot ie
>EuroKom | Tel: +353 (1) 296-9696
>A2, Nutgrove Office Park | Fax: +353 (1) 296-9697
>Rathfarnham | Disclaimer: This is not a disclaimer
>Dublin 14 | Tip: "Friends don't let friends do Unix !"
>Ireland
>
