Definitely vs. Definately

[gsdx]

Someone mentioned this one but I can't find it to quote but the 'Centre' vs. 'Center' debate.

I've seen that more for 'theatre' and 'theater' in the States. If memory serves, I believe it was explained to me that 'theater' involved movies and 'theatre' involved live performances.

I still don't understand, though, why the US spells metric words with an 'er' instead of 're' like the rest of the world, especially when it's not even used.

 

[Willie Boy]

That's kinda like one years episodes of a tv show. Originally it was called a season, but once it gets shipped overseas it becomes the series. The problem with this is that in the US series means all seasons of the show, not just a specific one. Then when you remake a series from the fifties and you compare the two it can get even more confusing when talking with someone from Europe or Australia. Not that either is wrong, just on different pages.

 

[DonQuixote]

Are we all having fun, yet?!
How many of us cross our sevens (7) when hand writing, or our "zed's"?

Or add a diagonal slash to our zeroes, to differentiate with "oh's"?

 

[Willie Boy]

Are we all having fun, yet?!
How many of us cross our sevens (7) when hand writing, or our "zed's"?

Or add a diagonal slash to our zeroes, to differentiate with "oh's"?

I normally don't here anything about "zeds", except on Stargate: Atlantis. Now you got me thinking about those darned Zed PMs (Zero Point Modules for us from the US)

 

[gsdx]

Or add a diagonal slash to our zeroes, to differentiate with "oh's"?

Only on my income tax forms, and only to indicate 'nil'.

 

[bankside]

Someone mentioned this one but I can't find it to quote but the 'Centre' vs. 'Center' debate.

Made all the more confusing lately, as Real Estate Developers in the US have taken to using the 'Centre' moniker when naming their developments. Evidently it looks more upscale.

'Centre Point Townhomes' looks cooler than 'Center Point Townhomes.' Ugh. They are still townhouses (multi unit attached homes).

I give up if they start putting up directional signs pointing to the 'Visitor's Car Park.'

Townhomes are called "maisonettes" in the UK. Ugh. "Maisonette." EWW. I'm afraid I side with the Yanks on that one. (PS All Americans are all called Yanks out here. Apparently this annoys some of you from the south. Sorry. We didn't know, but it's too late to change it now).

Also, a "car park" would be called a parkade in Canada. (though perhaps not in the eastern parts) However in the west, without exception, any parking facility that is more than just a ground-level parking lot is called a parkade. (rhymes with koolaid if you were wondering)

 

[Willie Boy]

Coming from the western US. I've always heard of parking lots. And if it is a structure (more than one level) it is a parking garage.

A car park sound like a place for cars to go on a picnic date, or to maybe take their kids (compact cars? ) to play on the swings or slides.

I always laugh about how we park in the driveway and drive on the parkway.

 

[cklover]

Good for you. However, don't forget you started this debate by saying (somewhat dogmatically, I might add) that spelling the past tense of spell as 'spelt' is a mistake that many make. Sorry sir, but you are wrong.

I was somewhat dogmatic and I shouldn't have been. I was about to address the issue of spelt as also being correct according to my Oxford English Dictionary. My intended reply was sidelined when I was told somewhat dogmatically that I was wrong. I did address the issue although not in the way I had intended to.

 

[Yooper]

Coming from the western US. I've always heard of parking lots. And if it is a structure (more than one level) it is a parking garage.

A car park sound like a place for cars to go on a picnic date, or to maybe take their kids (compact cars? ) to play on the swings or slides.

I always laugh about how we park in the driveway and drive on the parkway.

Adding to that one, in some parts of the US (at least the Upper Midwest) Parking Garages are called Ramps ('Holy Wah! There's so much snow today I couldn't park on the Street so I had to go park in the Ramp!').

 

[bankside]

Adding to that one, in some parts of the US (at least the Upper Midwest) Parking Garages are called Ramps ('Holy Wah! There's so much snow today I couldn't park on the Street so I had to go park in the Ramp!').

Huh! I've never even heard of that before, never mind actually hearing it in real life.

 

[Yooper]

Huh! I've never even heard of that before, never mind actually hearing it in real life.

Neither had I, until I moved there.

And to further confuse and bufuddle our Non-United States Friends, I present the subject of Limited-Access Highways.

We've got Freeways, Tollways, Turnpikes, Expressways, Highways, Parkways, Byways, Bypasses, Skyways, Interstates, and who knows what else. At one time they all used to mean something different, but not anymore.

Tollways and Turnpikes, though, imply you have to pay extra to use them, but not always. In Colorado, the Denver-Boulder Turnpike USED to be a tollway but they removed the tolls in 1970-ish. The name still has stuck, though, but it is only used by us old people.

I believe the British try to call them Motorways, and the Germans try for Autobahn, but I could be mistaken.

 

[Willie Boy]

Adding to that one, in some parts of the US (at least the Upper Midwest) Parking Garages are called Ramps ('Holy Wah! There's so much snow today I couldn't park on the Street so I had to go park in the Ramp!').

Huh! I've never even heard of that before, never mind actually hearing it in real life.

I've never heard of that either. Out here, the ramp is what you use to get to the next level of the garage.

That must get confusing in the Midwest. "Yeah, you drive into the ramp, take the ramp to get up to the ramp, and halfway along the ramp you should find a space to park. If not just take the ramp up to the next ramp, and you should be good."

 

[bankside]

Neither had I, until I moved there.

And to further confuse and bufuddle our Non-United States Friends, I present the subject of Limited-Access Highways.

We've got Freeways, Tollways, Turnpikes, Expressways, Highways, Parkways, Byways, Bypasses, Skyways, Interstates, and who knows what else. At one time they all used to mean something different, but not anymore.

Tollways and Turnpikes, though, imply you have to pay extra to use them, but not always. In Colorado, the Denver-Boulder Turnpike USED to be a tollway but they removed the tolls in 1970-ish. The name still has stuck, though, but it is only used by us old people.

I believe the British try to call them Motorways, and the Germans try for Autobahn, but I could be mistaken.

Yep. I had always heard those terms in US media but never had enough context to understand them at all.

Here they would all be called "highways." (or «autoroutes» in French). There are some technical descriptions (divided highway, undivided...) but pretty much all highways.

 

[Yooper]

I've never heard of that either. Out here, the ramp is what you use to get to the next level of the garage.

That must get confusing in the Midwest. "Yeah, you drive into the ramp, take the ramp to get up to the ramp, and halfway along the ramp you should find a space to park. If not just take the ramp up to the next ramp, and you should be good."

I have actually HEARD that conversation!

 

[Willie Boy]

And here I thought I was making it up on the fly!

 

[Robarob]

I believe the British try to call them Motorways...

Try?

I'm not sure how easy it is to explain roads in Britain, but I'll do my best to remain concise.

Motorways are (usually) roads with three lanes in each direction. They're blue on maps and have restrictions (no horses/cyclists/old people on mobility scooters, although bless them, they don't always realise. Oh, and no pedestrians either).

'A' roads are (usually) roads with either one or two lanes in each direction (the latter referred to as a dual carriageway). They're green on maps.

'B' roads are (usually) roads with a single lane in each direction and are less direct that 'A' roads, and more 'interesting' to drive down.

We technically have 'C' roads, but they're the roads in towns/villages.

Country lanes are the most 'fun' - all hell breaks loose as there's just enough room for two cars if everyone breathes in. Usually.

Of couse, there are random exceptions - there's an 'A' road in north Wales that has motorway restrictions, and a section of the M25 (that encircles London) which has three roads 'stuck' together.

I realise this is really a thread about spelling errors but someone mentioned we only managed to try and label our roads, so I went to town just a little. And now no-one's confused in the slightest.

 

[Willie Boy]

I've been told that "parkade" originally was "Parkade," a neologism invented in the 1950s by the Hudson's Bay Company and registered as a trademark, hence the capital "P." But like "escalator" and "cellophane," it lost its trademarked distinctiveness.

I dunno if the story is true. I can't find any proof on the web.

Parkade? That's called valet parking these days. They don't really aide you in parking, they just park for you.

 

[Willie Boy]

Parkade probably was coined to suggest arcade and colonnade and maybe even motorcade.

You forgot Cavalcade.

 

[mattypants]

what?! prescription?! in my jub!?!!

this definately wont do.

heh

 

[gsdx]

For future reference:

Canada does not have Interstate highways.