Dear John F-L, Jerry, Patrick, John M S, and All,
This article might help you decide which spelling you will choose for
metre or meter, and litre or liter, and in what circumstances you will
use them: http://www.metricationmatters.com/docs/Spelling_metre_or_meter.pdf
Cheers,
Pat Naughtin
I would agree that both spellings are acceptable in the US. NIST SP330 simply
says the -er spellings are preferred. (Just as l and L can be used as the
symbol for liter, but L is preferred.)
I am a bit surprised by ASTM. They are one of the professional organizations
that jointly publish
I have seen a couple of sources quoting an Argentine paper, in turn quoting an
anonymous source. If they are correct, it was a 10X error, perhaps due to a
decimal point error. Not clear if the error was in the prescription or made by
the pharmacy.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090425
There is an advantage to using the -re spelling of litre and metre in the US
and I'm sure the reason has been pointed out before. It distinguishes it from
liter (pronounced lighter) and meter (a device used to measure). In many
compound words, ending in -meter, the pronunciation is altered
Sorry, Pat
I'm out to convince my fellow Americans to go metric. If NIST SP330 recommends
-er, that's what I'm using, just to avoid adding confusion. When they change,
I'll change.
I think on this board, we are all sophisticated enough to recognize there are
multiple spellings out there.
I don't understand their short-sightedness in preferring the -er spelling over
the -re. They should prefer the spelling that is already accepted in the
English speaking world. Since English is already the international language of
trade and SI is the international language of measurement,
. If they are correct, it was a 10X error, perhaps due to a
decimal point error. Not clear if the error was in the prescription or made by
the pharmacy.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090425/ARTICLE/904251062/2050/SPORTS?Title=Selenium-is-focus-in-horse-inquiry
Citing anonymous sources, the Argentine
was in the prescription or
made by the pharmacy.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090425/ARTICLE/904251062/2050/SPORTS?
Title=Selenium-is-focus-in-horse-inquiry
Citing anonymous sources, the Argentine newspaper La Nacion reported Friday
that the horses' lab-made supplements included 5
Other language pairs don't have world-wide influence like English, so it isn't
much of a problem with the other languages due to limited usage of those
languages. I can see an American being confused by the word litre or metre if
it is encountered in English text of unknown origin and not
.
http://www.heraldtribune.com/article/20090425/ARTICLE/904251062/2050/SPORTS?Title=Selenium-is-focus-in-horse-inquiry
Citing anonymous sources, the Argentine newspaper La Nacion reported Friday
that the horses' lab-made supplements included 5 milligrams per milliliter of
sodium selenite instead
I suppose it is all a matter of how your mothre and fathre taught you to spell.
:)
It has never been clear to me when British English uses -er and when it uses
-re. The -re ending is very uncommon in American English, although there are
exceptions like acre, where -er would change the c from
American English uses to and too for two different meanings. So spellings
of metre and meter, and litre and liter etc.would be consistent with clearly
different meanings and would improve comprehension.
Stan Doore
- Original Message -
From: Jeremiah MacGregor
To: U.S.
I guess it has a lot to do with whether the word came into English via German
or French/Latin. Mother (die Mutter) and Father (der Vater) are of German
origin and centre, theatre, litre, metre, etc are of French origin.
Yes, you are right about theatre and centre. I tend to see the spelling
There is also tow and toe, bow and bough. Then bow can have two different
pronunciations depending on its meaning. Then there is Polish (people from
Poland) and polish (to make something shine). The people should be called
Pollacks. That is what they call themselves.
Then there is check,
Somehow that public law needs to be changed so that the word preferred is
changed to something else. Something more requiring, like the standard
measurement system.
Public Law 100-418 designates the metric system of measurements as the standard
measurement system for United States trade and
Actually, the non-American way of spelling a demand drawn on a bank is cheque
(no 'c' before the 'q').
In terms of pronunciation (and a bit off topic I admit), there are something
like 6 or 7 ways of pronouncing -ough.
Finally, I am reminded of the old joke about a newly married couple on
Jeremiah wrote: German and French both have had recent spelling reforms. I
think such a reform is long overdue for English.
There's a difference in linguistic philosophy between English and languages
like French and German. French and German dictionaries are prescriptive,
whereas English
You'll have to have a word with those countries in Europe who spell those
measures 'meter, liter' etc then.
Having said that - at least John P Schweisthall can claim someone agreed with
him!! ;-)
From: j...@frewston.plus.com
To: usma@colostate.edu
Subject: [USMA:44842] Re: IEEE/ASTM SI-10
John:
There are, in fact, eight ways of pronouncing -ough.
ow, as in bough
uff, as in rough,
oo, as in through
aw, as in ought
up, as in hiccough
oh, as in dough
off, as in cough
uh, as in thorough
Bill
_
Bill Potts
W http://wfpconsulting.com/ FP Consulting
Roseville, CA
And 'Slough' - a god awful town in Berkshire, UK
From: w...@wfpconsulting.com
To: usma@colostate.edu
Subject: [USMA:44862] Re: IEEE/ASTM SI-10
Date: Sat, 25 Apr 2009 12:33:41 -0700
John:
There
are, in fact, eight ways of pronouncing -ough.
ow, as
in bough
uff,
as in rough,
oo,
I'm familiar with Slough, which is where the headquarters of Novell Europe used
to be in the 1980s. I found it ordinary, but not actually awful.
I avoided the word slough, though, as it can have several of the available
-ough pronunciations, depending on meaning and dialect (slaow, slow,
On Apr 25 , at 7:50 AM, John M. Steele wrote:
... the horses' lab-made supplements included 5 milligrams per
milliliter of sodium selenite instead of the prescribed 0.5
milligrams.
One wonders if this may have been a case of omitting the 0 (zero)
before the decimal point in 0.5.
Two of us, myself and Martin already touched on this. I am wondering how the
news media will handle this when it comes out that the American practice of not
using a zero to precede a decimal number less then one was the cause of the
deaths of all of these horses.
If it can happen with horses,
On 2009/04/25, at 11:04 PM, John M. Steele wrote:
I suppose it is all a matter of how your mothre and fathre taught
you to spell. :)
It has never been clear to me when British English uses -er and when
it uses -re. The -re ending is very uncommon in American English,
although there are
Two of us, myself and Martin already touched on this
Be aware that some people unsubscribe at the weekend, as has already been
mentioned - and then resubsribe on Monday). Others will use filtering. So
don't worry too much if people 'appear' to repeat something (it could be due to
Two countries separated by a common language. Take your pick, Wilde or
Shaw (not Churchill). But Noah Webster was prescient.
Jim
Pat Naughtin wrote:
On 2009/04/25, at 11:04 PM, John M. Steele wrote:
I suppose it is all a matter of how your mothre and fathre taught you
to spell. :)
It
Jim, John, James list:
.Chester H. Page is listed as an editor of the
(UK) National Physical Laboratory English language translation of Le
Système International d'Unités (SI), but his name does not appear.
I think I have argued invain since here the discussion is NOT for 'SI
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