What do you call the season that’s coming up–Autumn or Fall? Why does it have two names anyway? Can’t it just be autumn, so the names of all the seasons have six letter?
And do non-English speaking countries have this dilemma?
I voted “either”.
It depends on how I am using the word - in school terms, it is generally called “Fall Term”, but I know back home in Illinois, people would say they are going to the parks to see the trees turning color in “Autumn”.
In Vegas we only have hot, and less hot.
The Four Seasons is only a hotel near Mandalay Bay.
Either. But I use fall in writing more often because it’s easier to spell.
I said either, but it’s more like 1/3 Autumn and 2/3 Fall. Syllable count I guess.
Autumn is more poetic. Fall is more common language. Other than that, interchangeable for me.
Fall, it’s shorter… and the “mn” gives me the creeps.
We call it Syksy (no other words for it) in Finnish… in which no word can end with a double consonant, hence my problem with the mn.
Depends who I’m talking to. If its an American friend/colleague/giving a public talk, “fall”, anybody else gets “autumn”.
Fall, for the most part.
I call it fall or as we say here, “the beginning of hell.” If I were writing a high brow novel, I’d use Autumn. It has not happened yet though.
However, the “n” is silent in “autumn”, just as it is in “hymn”.
I only use Autumn, but have nothing against Fall any more than I do against Herbst.
Good username/thread combo. 
I say fall. I think of autumn as more British English or poetic usage.
The German for the season between summer and winter is ‘Herbst.’
Well, in Bulgarian, they don’t have this issue with this particular word (fall is “essen”), but sure, there are multiple words for the same things. In most cases, there will be a standard Bulgarian word, and then a synonymous Turkish word. Which one you use depends on a number of factors. For instance, the word I would use for “eggplant” (which is, an aside, something else where there’s an America/British divide) is “patladzhan”, which is actually a Turkish word. In other parts of Bulgaria, they’re called “sin domat”. Which literally means “blue tomato”. wtf no, that’s just crazy. But it is actual Bulgarian.
I say Fall, but Autumn is perfectly cromulent.
In Japanese, it’s typically 秋 (aki)
Yes, but I **know **it’s there. Sharks are silent… so is radiation poisoning… as is the thing under your bed.
Silent = bad. :eek:
I use “fall” usually but “autumn” for certain phrases.
In Spanish, it’s “otoño.”
I usually say Autumn, but have used Fall from time to time.
In Japanese it is usually Aki (Hiragana: あき), but can also be Shuu (Hiragana: しゅう) depending on usage. The kanji for both Aki and Shuu is 秋.
Increasingly, younger Japanese use オータム, pronounced Ohtamu, literally Autumn.
:eek:
Mind. Blown.
In French it’s l’automne.
I use both, although “fall” is probably my usual choice.
As I now live in Jakarta and work with lots of Australians, but still maintain an American mentality about spring-summer-fall-winter, seasonal references are a problem for me.
I do a lot of writing for work where I would like to make suitably vague references about time frame. For example we may know that something will happen around September, but I don’t want to be too specific because delays are possible. So, without thinking I will write, “The workshop is expected to be held this fall.”
Of course, I always have to rewrite such sentences.
There isn’t a commonly used term for “fall” in Indonesian, for obvious reasons - people think in terms of “musim hujan” (wet season), “musim panen” (harvest season) and the like. However, there are obviously cases when the English concept of “fall” must be translated - in that case, it is written as “musim gugur.” While “gugur” has several closely related meanings, the first one people think of is “miscarriage.” If you are from a place where the trees stay green year-round, that is probably as good an image as any for leaves turning brown and dropping off the branches.
In Russian: осень (OH-seen).