# British English vs. U.S. English - film vs. movie **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 21, 2006, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-vs-u-s-english-film-vs-movie/349267 "2006-03-21T11:41:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2017, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-vs-u-s-english-film-vs-movie/349267/42 "2017-09-16T21:20:41Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > No, it isn’t. **Dusty** is off his rocker, I tell you. Theater is by far the dominant spelling in the US, but many places do have ‘Theatre’ as part of their name. I agree with this. A lot of commercial establishment use spellings like center and theatre because it Los fact, but the standard spellings are still center and theater. And I agree with others—in the U.S. we usually go to the “(movie) theater” to watch a “movie.” The theater often has “cinema” in its name, but we rarely call it “the cinema” nor refer to the art or industry in general as “cinema.” ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-vs-u-s-english-film-vs-movie/349267/43 "2017-09-17T00:19:13Z")
> [@markn\_1](#): > > The “theatre” spelling is nonstandard in American English. It’s used in some proper names to give an ersatz sense of elegance to the establishment, because to many Americans, British English is viewed as higher class than American English. It’s not uncommon on both movie theaters and live performance theaters. The same thing is done with other words that are spelled differently in BrE vs. AmE. For example, in San Francisco there are two shopping malls called “North Point Centre” and “Westfield San Francisco Centre”, and an assisted living facility called “Bay Harbour Care Home”. Some 45 years ago, in the University Theatre Department, the proper spelling was ‘theatre’ – ‘theater’ referred to those cheap places where they showed movies & cartoons while the audience ate popcorn. Professors would mark you down if you used the ‘theater’ spelling. But even then that was kinda dying out – only the older professors insisted on it. Younger ones would just point it out, and say that if old so-and-so was teaching this class, your grade would suffer from that, so better get in the habit of using the ‘theatre’ spelling. American spell-checkers do highlight the ‘theatre’ spelling, but there were no spellcheckers back then. I’d say either spelling is OK today. But then, given cell phones & twitter, just about any spelling seems to be accepted today. U git me, 4 sure? ---
**Author:** ![anomalous1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e56c9b/32.png) [@anomalous1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anomalous1)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-vs-u-s-english-film-vs-movie/349267/44 "2017-09-17T04:45:05Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > Along those lines, do people nowadays use their phone’s video mode to “tape” someone? I don’t usually hear it called “filming”. Sometimes I catch myself saying “tape” instead of record, I was born in 1988, so VCR’s and other cassettes were still around and the most ubiquitous for ‘recording’ things. So I sometimes say ‘tape’. I feel like its going to stick and my kids are going to be saying “what does ‘tape something’ mean? you old man”. It’ll be one of those words that is attributed to older generations in its use. Sort of like “fix you supper” or “that’s horsehockey”. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [September 17, 2017, 6:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-vs-u-s-english-film-vs-movie/349267/45 "2017-09-17T06:17:33Z")
> [@Kron](#): > > I only ever hear “recording” in the context of phone cameras. When I here :recording’ I reach for my video camera… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/british-english-vs-u-s-english-film-vs-movie/349267.md?page=2)