Why Do Americans Spell it 'Center' Instead of 'Centre'? | #shorts

A one-minute primer on how Americans came to spell it 'center' instead of 'centre' (British English).

[RichyArg]

Today on another episode of "well, both used to spell it like that but England changed its mind later on"

[jennarobinson]

Had an American French language teacher who got her degree through student teaching English to French students in France. She was expected to use British spelling, but the students could not understand this word’s pronunciation until she used american spelling. Then it clicked for the whole class.

[LtColShingSides]

I had a Britsh friend who would ask me stuff like this. My blanket answer for her was always, "Just to upset you."

[PupStunt]

I've always just assumed "center" was the middle of something and "centre" was a place. 😂

[OfficerSkeleton]

You know when I first stumbled across this guy I fully expected it to be a series of "why are Americans so silly?" but it almost always ends up being "it makes perfect sense and here's why" and I appreciate that a lot.

[cantsay]

Whenever I see 'centre' written, I hear it in my head pronounced as 'cent-ray'

[Fetidaf]

I’ve always used “centre” as in town center or a venue or whatever but “center” as the middle of something… same with theater/theatre; theater is a movie theater and theatre has a stage

[jeffdege]

Like many other things, the Brits went through a francophile phase, which Webster rejected.

[ridikipicklepeckinpuff]

I love the fact that the portrait of the Dictionary guy is him literally doing the "wtf are you trying to say?" face :)

[mekosmowski]

"He really was ahead of his time" love this!

[theedgeofoblivious-old]

It's so weird how many times the way so many certain things are done in the Americas turns out to have been closer to the way the thing was done way in the past, and yet the stereotype in the European countries is that their way was the original way to do those things.

[mLify]

There's a lot about American language, dialects, and accents that has preserved Elizabethan English better than the English did

[OptimusPhillip]

Prediction: Noah Webster thought it made more sense to spell it that way, and the people of America collectively agreed "you know? You're not wrong"

[HarryMarsee-fwot]

Also Centre Street, Fernandina Beach, Florida in their downtown historic center.

[timkai]

As a resident of centre county, Pa, I appreciate that you mentioned us!

[AlexanderKrivacsSchrder]

I like American style endings because they're congruent with my own language. Senter, teater, meter, liter, etc.

[MrOffTrail]

Mister, daughter, chapter, diameter, perimeter, disaster, enter, filter, letter, minister, oyster, batter, lighter, fitter, potter, parameter are all -er in both Brit & US. Many many more, but I just stuck to -ter to match center/centre. So I’d say Webster was much better than Johnson at standardizing the ending.

[robertheilman]

the one thing we all failed at was fixing the spelling of wednesday

[sydneykendall]

Thank you for the lesson!
Love the look-alike glasses on Lincoln.

[meganw.]

In Canada we use both generally interchangeably but after some research we found typically in Canada the "middle" is center and a place is centre