by katscratcedme on December 7th, 2004
"Grey is used primarily in areas that use UK English. Gray is used primarily in areas that use US English." ––– (Kim Siever)
That's right. I'm in Australia and doing a Master's degree in Writing at University (College) and we discussed this in class the other day, because a student wrote gray in a short story and was told to change it to grey.
Similarly, if you are in the States you will be encouraged to use gray.
There are many other differences too. For example, we write travelled, in the US it has only one 'l', there's centre and center, theatre and theater etc, colour and color, labour and labor, defence/defense, jewellery and jewelry, kerb and curb, litre/liter/metre/meter, tyre and tire and so on.
The American spelling's often a little more phonetic.
by Worzel on October 5th, 2007
Grey! In the UK Gray is also a name :o)
by Kim Siever on November 11th, 2004
Grey is used primarily in areas that use UK English. Gray is used primarily in areas that use US English.
by labgirl on October 5th, 2007
Depends on if you are in U.S. or U.K.
by Kevisaurus is a Carnotaurus today on October 5th, 2007
Gray because my spell checker says Grey is correct too.
It doesn't matter in my opinion.
Of course Lord Earl is Grey
by maddock on April 3rd, 2007
None at all: Grey is the standard British English spelling and Gray is the standard American English spelling. The pronunciation and meaning are the same.
Both are acceptable in the USA, but 'gray' is the official spelling.
by Tallyman on September 16th, 2008
I like grey better, but either is correct.
I'm from the USA.
by SweetW on September 16th, 2008
Of course both gray and grey are correct. Even though this answer box just flagged grey as incorrect! lol. But as the others have pointed out, gray is more generally used in the US and grey in the UK.
It is generally more respectable to use one or the other consistently, although some of us are quite visual and regularly spell words the latest way we have been reading them.
The one place you must not make a mistake is in proper nouns: Earl Grey cannot be spelled Gray, nor Zane Grey, either. And L.H. Gray must be spelled Gray.
Also be careful of the compound word greyhound, which is spelled grey-.
by Brian I on October 5th, 2007
I spell it with an E, but then I put what somebody on this site told me was a spurious U in colour and humour.
by Babycakes on October 5th, 2007
Gray....as in my hair if I didn't color it every once in a while.
by KagomeShuko on April 3rd, 2007
There's no difference. The two different spellings are correct for the same color.
by findmeharry on November 12th, 2009
It appears that the "gray" varient appeared later, as an American English varient of "grey". Both have mostly the same many meanings. So yes, "grey" is a color, and was always so. Us Americans had to go
and be different with "gray."
A few meanings are unique, however, to the "gray" varient.
by Grant aka Guybrush Threepwood on October 15th, 2009
i spell it as grey.
by McFingon on September 18th, 2009
Depends where you live, I write grey and humour and colour. Those who live south of me would say that is incorrect ;-)
by Shanel with an S on September 18th, 2009
i say grey.
by moodycow665 on September 16th, 2008
grey!!
by Anonymous on February 2nd, 2008
katscratcedme6 wrote on Dec 7, 2004 at 5:34 pm
"The American spelling's often a little more phonetic."
The above claim is false.
Spelling can never be phoentic. Letters are symbols that represent bits of sound.
Spelling can be consistent or inconsistent, yet not "more phonetic".
by Firebrand on October 5th, 2007
Colour Grey
by johngo on September 18th, 2009
It depends where you live. In Scotland both spellings occur, though as an English speaker and writer of English I prefer _grey_. I can't see that there's much point in getting upset about it. _Gray_ is a common surname in England and Scotland.
by tenchukii on October 8th, 2009
I read over at http://www.greyorgray.com that according to a survey conducted both in the U.S. and England, many people believe grey is an actual color perceived as the hue of "silver", and gray is a sliding scale of values from black to white. See my screenshot that I attached from there.
So,I did some further research and found this was believed in both regions so it appears that aside from grammatical reasoning there is a connotative attitude toward the two. In short Gray is a Color and Grey is a Colour.
by Rude Bear Ready for Winter on October 15th, 2009
Depends. In the US Gray is correct. but in other English speaking countries it is spelled Grey. Funny, I was just answering a "what color" question... my answer was grey till spell check told me I was wrong :-)
by Jenniferocious on October 15th, 2009
I think both are technically correct.
I use grey.
by Gina.Intoxicates.You on October 15th, 2009
gray
by 8 Jan 2004-10 Dec 2009 on October 8th, 2009
Depends on where you are.
I tend to throw people for a loop because I use grey, though I tend to spell most other words the American way.
by Thom64 on September 22nd, 2004
"Grey" appears to be a legitimate modern American alternate spelling of "gray." There may be regional or historical preferences but Merriam-Webster just lists grey as a variant of gray. On a spelling test, I would mark it wrong if the student used the spelling not on the spelling list that was provided, but I don't think I would take off points for using either in a composition provided the student was consistent - I don't think I would let a student get away using both spellings in the same writing.
I would personally encourage using "gray" since that is the way I learned it and that is the main entry in my dictionary.
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You're reading Which is correct, gray or grey?
- which can also be phrased in the following ways:
What's the difference between gray and grey? is there a difference?
How do you spell the color grEy or grAy?
Is it Gray or Grey?
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Comments
Quite correct. American English is more phonetic. It was changed to make the spelling of English easier
by Tuckstar on November 19th, 2005
Litre and metre are the proper SI spelling; the US does not follow the international standard.
by RedJohn on March 10th, 2006
Good answer!
by Answers101 on July 8th, 2006
'center' and 'centre'....'tire' and 'tyre'.....aluminium and aluminum.... : )
by originallyjustme on September 17th, 2007
"The American spelling's often a little more phonetic."
Sometimes we Americans have to have things spelled out phonetically or we'll be lost. :-)
by Aquatic Eagle on October 22nd, 2008
Actually "theater" refers the building and "theatre" refers to the art of....
by Anonymous on December 7th, 2009