# Gray vs. Grey **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 22, 2008, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010 "2008-10-22T02:50:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![4everkid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/76d3ee/32.png) [@4everkid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/4everkid)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 6:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010/21 "2008-10-23T06:00:54Z")
I think I say perfume BOTH ways. I have always used the spelling of grey, even though I was pretty sure its the Brit version. I blame the heavy addiction to Tolkien in my early years. Gray just feels wrong. ---
**Author:** ![NAF1138](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naf1138/32/3245_2.png) [@NAF1138](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NAF1138)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010/22 "2008-10-23T07:14:23Z")
> [@Jragon](#): > > A lot of Americans nowadays make the distinction that a theater is a place and theatre is the art, i.e. you go to the theater to see the theatre students perform. It’s not necessarily a correct\* or useful distinction, but it definitely exists to several people I’ve met. > > \*Well, not incorrect usage either, I suppose. It’s more “neutral.” This is what I was taught at theatre school. Firefox doesn’t like it when I spell it that way though. In my head I make the distiction, and actually know of one theatre company that performs in the “Theatre Theater” which I always thought was a rather clever name for a theater. I also always think that gray looks odd. I tend to spell it grey (which again, firefox tells me is wrong. But then it also tells me that firefox is wrong, so what does it know.) ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 12:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010/23 "2008-10-23T12:36:28Z")
Calling a cinema a theater drives me crazy. It’s not a theater; it’s a cinema. Perhaps in the early days, they used theaters for cinemas and so that’s why were’ stuck with the word. I know, I know, common venacular and all that. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010/24 "2008-10-23T15:51:48Z")
Note that there are a number of usages where both forms are perfectly OK. We just have to get used to the fact that sometimes there is no “One True Right Way”, no matter how it confuses us or annoys Mrs. Thistlebottom. Grey/Gray is one of those. ---
**Author:** ![redtail23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/3e96dc/32.png) [@redtail23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/redtail23)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2008, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010/25 "2008-10-23T17:25:29Z")
I tend to use “gray” to describe something depressing or boring, and “grey” to describe something nifty or special. Because “grey” is just inherently cooler than “gray”. I suspect, however, that this is a personal quirk. 😉 Here in Okieland, PERfume seems to be a more rural usage, with perFUME being more urban. They’re pretty interchangeable, though. ---
**Author:** ![chromaticity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@chromaticity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chromaticity)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010/26 "2008-10-24T15:19:06Z")
Other than the [Gray code](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gray_code) which comes from a name, I refer to the colour as grey. British usage? wikipedia seems to think so… ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010/27 "2008-10-24T15:39:24Z")
> [@redtail23](#): > > I tend to use “gray” to describe something depressing or boring, and “grey” to describe something nifty or special. Because “grey” is just inherently cooler than “gray”. I suspect, however, that this is a personal quirk. 😉 Not entirely. In clothing the term seems to be gr **e** y more often than not. Especially in men’s suits, where a basic Anglophilia never quite goes away, you see Oxford gr **e** y and Cambridge gr **e** y most often. [The Man in the Gr\_y Flannel Suit](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3041/2658682154_42aabf0370.jpg?v=1215783726), however, seems to be [undecided](http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/images/n32/n163000.jpg). BTW, that suit is Oxford, slightly lighter than medium gr\_y. Cambridge is dead medium, a 50% gr\_y value. ---
**Author:** ![Tom\_Tildrum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e95f7d/32.png) [@Tom\_Tildrum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tom_Tildrum)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010/28 "2008-10-24T17:00:39Z")
I always say per-FUME. I wonder, does this pronunciation difference correlate with the way people say “insurance” or “umbrella”? I.e., stress on the first syllable or the second? ---
**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:** [October 24, 2008, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010/29 "2008-10-24T17:04:49Z")
Interesting. Before this thread, I had never realized that some people differentiate between spellings of “gray/grey” based on the context of the word. To me, “gray” and “grey” mean exactly the same thing in all cases, and which one you use is a matter of which one you’re more used to seeing. I tend to vacillate between the two, with perhaps a slight preference for “grey.” ---
**Author:** ![maladroit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f475e1/32.png) [@maladroit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/maladroit)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010/30 "2008-10-24T18:29:05Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > In my experience, Americans pronounce _perfume_ with emphasis on the first syllable when it is a noun, on the second when it is a verb. > > “That’s nice _per_fume you’re wearing tonight.” > > “The smell of baking bread will per_fume_ your house and encourage buyers to think of it as home.” I do this, but never thought about it before reading this thread. I’m american. ---
**Author:** ![tullsterx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e9bcb4/32.png) [@tullsterx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tullsterx)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010/31 "2008-10-24T20:01:20Z")
> [@TheLoadedDog](#): > > That’s odd. When it was mentioned, it definitely struck a chord of familiarity to me. Maybe it’s just a Hollywood thing (we non-Americans are aware of the need to filter cultural references accordingly, but we don’t always get it right). Hmm. . . I think I use perFUME and PERfume in different sentence structures. . . “It’s a new brand of perFUME.” “What brand of PERfume is that?” I think it depends upon the rhythm of the sentence somehow. And I think I use “grey” more that I use “gray”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/gray-vs-grey/469010.md?page=1)