# Do you call it "Autumn" or "Fall" (and what's it called in non-English languages?) **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 11, 2010, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963 "2010-08-11T18:38:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/41 "2010-08-13T00:15:05Z")
It would not be uncommon for me to use Autumn or Fall, but I probably say Autumn more often than not. This is because I have a friend who will make a stupid joke about falling or some other stupidity and that got old many many years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hypnagogic_jerk/32/4252_2.png) [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypnagogic_Jerk)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/42 "2010-08-13T01:57:23Z")
> [@Cunctator](#): > > > [@Hypnagogic\_Jerk](#): > > > > Just a hijack, and I don’t mean to single you out, but why, when anglophones mention French nouns, do they always put an article there as well? > > Because that’s how we’re taught French. In English, a noun’s gender isn’t gramatically relevant, but in French it’s a vital piece of information. So every noun is learnt with its article so that we can learn its gender at the same time. Of course, in this case, the article doesn’t help reveal the gender, but it’s still a reflex action to give article + noun. That makes sense. Thanks! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/43 "2010-08-13T03:45:23Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > > [@boomerwang](#): > > > > In Russian: осень (OH-seen). > > Admittedly, my Russian isn’t great, but wouldn’t it be OH-sen or OH-syen? Where is the “ee” sound coming from in the second syllable? [Here’s a link to the actual pronunciation.](http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%D0%BE%D1%81%D0%B5%D0%BD%D1%8C) “OH-seen” is not a bad approximation of it, although something like “OH-s(y)in(y)” (where “(y)” indicates palatalization) would be more accurate. Russian orthography is not completely phonetic. An “e” in an unstressed position becomes a short-i type of sound. [You can read about Russian vowel reduction here.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vowel_reduction_in_Russian) ---
**Author:** ![pravnik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8edcca/32.png) [@pravnik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pravnik)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/44 "2010-08-13T04:22:33Z")
> [@Kyla](#): > > It’s an American word now, but it’s my understanding that “fall” is the original English word, and was retained in America after there was a shift to using “autumn” in Britain. Looking a cite, Wikipedia agrees with me, but there’s no cite for it. Hmm. I can’t remember where I heard that originally. I’d heard the same thing, and was planning on posting just that. ---
**Author:** ![Mississippienne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d2c977/32.png) [@Mississippienne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mississippienne)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/45 "2010-08-13T05:28:53Z")
_Origins of the specious: myths and misconceptions of the English language_ by Patricia T. O’Connor has this to say about the origins of ‘fall’ and ‘autumn’: > [@](#): > > The Americans call it “fall” or “autumn”. The British call it “autumn” and think “fall” is a Yankee eccentricity. The truth is that we all once had two words, but the British lost one along the way while the Americans perserved them both. Interestingly, the Brits discarded the Anglo-Saxon word and kept the one they got from the French. The word “fall” has been part of English since the reign of King Alfred the Great in the ninth century, though it wasn’t used for the season until the sixteenth century. It made its eloquent debute in a 1545 book on archery: “Spring tyme, somer, faule of the leafe, and winter.” So “fall” is a legitimate English word fossiled in the Americas, much like “apartment” or “gotten” (both often mistaken for Americanisms, both, like “fall”, English words largely abandoned by their country of origin). ---
**Author:** ![Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malleus_incus_stapes/32/3293_2.png) [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/46 "2010-08-13T19:17:51Z")
I use 'em pretty much interchangeably. Not much rhyme or reason to it, other than maybe the number of syllables. > [@multimediac17](#): > > I’m Australian too and I don’t ever hear “fall”, we always say “autumn”. In my experience you’d get funny looks if you suddenly referred to the season as “fall” (unless of course you were American), it’s considered an Americanism like “sidewalk” or “vacation”. “Vacation” is an Amercanism? What do they call it in Australia, then? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/47 "2010-08-13T19:19:20Z")
> [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > I"Vacation" is an Amercanism? What do they call it in Australia, then? 😕 Everybody goes on “holiday.” ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/48 "2010-08-13T19:32:48Z")
I mostly (but not always) say “fall”. Greek: φθινόπωρο (fthinoporo), which roughly translates as “fall of the fruits”. ---
**Author:** ![salinqmind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@salinqmind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/salinqmind)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/49 "2010-08-13T23:07:51Z")
Fall: short, blunt, casual, American, to the point (like me!) Autumn: more … poetic, a bit high-falutin’, more descriptive of the season than the actual event. Martha Stewart can expound on her new collection of washcloths in autumnal colors. But kids go back to school in the fall, not autumn. ---
**Author:** ![kidneyfailure](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9f8e36/32.png) [@kidneyfailure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kidneyfailure)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2010, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/50 "2010-08-13T23:57:29Z")
I think “autumn” sounds nicer than “fall,” though I use both equally as often. Whichever I feel like saying I say. 秋天 (qiu tian) in Chinese ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/51 "2010-08-14T00:08:54Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > > [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](#): > > > > I"Vacation" is an Amercanism? What do they call it in Australia, then? 😕 > > Everybody goes on “holiday.” On the footpaths, no doubt. ---
**Author:** ![BrassyPhrase](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ea666f/32.png) [@BrassyPhrase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrassyPhrase)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/52 "2010-08-14T02:48:40Z")
Right now in Houston, I’m calling it “Sweet Baby Jesus, will it never be cooler in the daytime than “feels like” 105? Please come to me, sweet cooling winds!” Though, usually, I use fall or autumn interchangeably. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2010, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963/53 "2010-08-14T14:29:05Z")
Autumn except for when I’m in the tropics in which case winter becomes “The Dry”, spring becomes “The Build Up”, summer becomes “The Wet”, and autumn becomes nothing in particular. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-call-it-autumn-or-fall-and-whats-it-called-in-non-english-languages/549963.md?page=2)