# why does U.S spelling omit the 'u'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 30, 2013, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007 "2013-09-30T15:08:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Spoons](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spoons/32/3141_2.png) [@Spoons](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoons)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/101 "2013-10-02T08:26:19Z")
Oh, for crimeny’s sake. Back in the 1980’s, I wrote user manuals for a Canadian-based technology company. We were international; we exported our technology around the world. We used Canadian spelling when we wrote English. That is, we used “cheque,” “centre,” and “colour.” We did not use “kerb” or “tyre,” or similar. Yet the people who complained were the Americans, who said we had spelling errors in the documentation. They wanted the whole mess rewritten in American spelling. I’ve read written works in both American and British spelling, and understood both. Why can Americans not understand both, as the rest of us in the English-speaking world do? Americans, just understand that there are different spellings and deal! ---
**Author:** ![Punoqllads](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/d2c977/32.png) [@Punoqllads](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Punoqllads)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/102 "2013-10-02T08:51:49Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Forget the ‘U’, what’s with you guys and your ‘Zed’?!? Zed? Who’s that? A friend of ‘Naught’ no doubt… 😃 > [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > I think you mean _nought_. _Naught_ appears just as frequently in US usage as it does in British usage, which is to say not much. Nought: variant spelling of naught. Naught: zero. Unless you meant to spell nougat. There’s always room for nougat. ---
**Author:** ![sentrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@sentrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sentrix)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 9:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/103 "2013-10-02T09:03:27Z")
but ‘50 shades of grey’ would not be the same if it was ‘50 shades of gray’ …admit it, you’ve all read bits. written by an aussie and the movie which i fear is going to be horrible starring don johnson’s daughter who looks like her father in a wig. they didn’t change the spelling to ‘gray’ ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/104 "2013-10-02T10:14:37Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > The reason British writers want to write ‘Pearl Harbour’ is not just because they are being contrary - it’s because _the place is a harbour_ - it is a place where boats go. Just to expand further on this - if the place was called ‘Honor Bay’, or ‘Traveler’s Cove’ the spelling would probably stand unchanged. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/105 "2013-10-02T11:32:12Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > Why can Americans not understand both, as the rest of us in the English-speaking world do? Please do not tar everyone with the same brush, quite a few of us Americans have no trouble understand other written English dialects. > [@](#): > > Americans, just understand that there are different spellings and deal! Ironic, considering the OP is written from the point of view of someone clearly used to UK spellings having an issue with American spelling. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/106 "2013-10-02T13:38:33Z")
> [@Punoqllads](#): > > Nought: variant spelling of naught. > Naught: zero. > > Unless you meant to spell nougat. There’s always room for nougat. They are most commonly used in different senses in the UK. Nought is zero, but naught is nothing. Same, but not the same. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/107 "2013-10-02T14:44:33Z")
> [@sentrix](#): > > but ‘50 shades of grey’ would not be the same if it was ‘50 shades of gray’ In the US, “grey” and “gray” are often used interchangeably. The distinction between the color and the name has been largely forgotten for many years now. ---
**Author:** ![sentrix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ac8455/32.png) [@sentrix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sentrix)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/108 "2013-10-02T15:49:05Z")
> [@Broomstick](#): > > Please do not tar everyone with the same brush, quite a few of us Americans have no trouble understand other written English dialects. > Ironic, considering the OP is written from the point of view of someone clearly used to UK spellings having an issue with American spelling. i have no issues with American spelling. fyi. ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/109 "2013-10-02T20:25:13Z")
> [@Diceman](#): > > In the US, “grey” and “gray” are often used interchangeably. The distinction between the color and the name has been largely forgotten for many years now. So, a question for non-Americans\* : Does the spelling “gray” look strange and/or wrong to you? - you know what I mean - people from the United States, specifically. I understand that Canada is in North America ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [October 2, 2013, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/110 "2013-10-02T23:41:34Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Here’s [H.L. Mencken on Webster.](http://www.bartleby.com/185/32.html) > > > [@](#): > > > > A great many of his innovations, of course, failed to take root, and in the course of time he abandoned some of them himself. In his early “Essay on the Necessity, Advantage and Practicability of Reforming the Mode of Spelling” he advocated reforms which were already discarded by the time he published the first edition of his dictionary. Among them were the dropping of the silent letter in such words as head, give, built and realm, making them hed, giv, bilt, and relm; the substitution of doubled vowels for decayed diphthongs in such words as mean, zeal and near, making them meen, zeel and neer; and the substitution of sh for ch in such French loan-words as machine and chevalier, making them masheen and shevaleer. He also declared for stile in place of style, and for many other such changes, and then quietly abandoned them. The successive editions of his dictionary show still further concessions. Croud, fether, groop, gillotin, iland, **instead** , leperd, soe, sut, steddy, thret, thred, thum and wimmen appear only in the 1806 edition. In 1828 he went back to crowd, feather, group, island, **instead** , leopard, sew, soot, steady, thread, threat, thumb and women, and changed gillotin to guillotin. In addition, he restored the final e in determine, discipline, requisite, imagine, etc. … > > There’s much more on the various changes, when they originated, and their fate in the article. > > American spellings would be far more different from British ones if all of Webster’s reforms had taken hold. bolding/redding mine Maybe I’m just stupid, but he went back from “instead” to “instead”? buh? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/111 "2013-10-03T00:12:19Z")
“Grey” is the British spelling, and “gray” is the American. I suspect that the reason some Americans are comfortable with both is that the word shows up a lot in Tolkien’s writings. Personally, I think of the two as being different shades, for that reason. To me, “grey” describes things like Gandalf’s beard, or wisps of fog on a marsh, but not the sorts of gray one encounters in more pedestrian contexts. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/112 "2013-10-03T00:14:23Z")
I use grey for bluish greys and gray for reddish grays, but that’s mostly for my own amusement. I don’t expect or assume anyone else maintains such a distinction. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/113 "2013-10-03T08:30:01Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Forget the ‘U’, what’s with you guys and your ‘Zed’?!? Zed? Who’s that? A friend of ‘Naught’ no doubt… 😃 _A philandering Briton called Z Once (very connivingly) S “If the wife of my neighbour Looks on me with favour I can probably get her in B.”_ ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 9:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/114 "2013-10-03T09:09:29Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > Are they definitely wrong though? If so, why? > [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > Are they definitely wrong? They insist British style be used by everyone in the world for proper names in the UK itself, for the very reason that these things are _in_ the UK. But then they turn around and insist only British style be used for any proper names located _inside_ the US, because the Americans don’t know proper spelling. So yes, I say they are wrong. > > Again, these are only a small minority. I’m not dumping on Brits in general, most of whom I’ve found to be good people. That’s far more complex than it needs to be. They’re definitely wrong _because they don’t do it the way I do it!_ ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2013, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/115 "2013-10-03T10:04:48Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > _A philandering Briton called Z > Once (very connivingly) S > “If the wife of my neighbour > Looks on me with favour > I can probably get her in B.”_ I love the perplexity ‘Zed’ causes. It’s not as if there’s any great consistency in the pronunciation of letter names, or any great need for them to rhyme. I mean, sure, ‘Zee’ rhymes with B, C and P - and ‘Zed’ doesn’t, but we don’t pronounce Q as ‘kwee’, or F as ‘fee’. ---
**Author:** ![Rucksinator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/898d66/32.png) [@Rucksinator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rucksinator)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/116 "2013-10-04T00:27:38Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I love the perplexity ‘Zed’ causes. It’s not as if there’s any great consistency in the pronunciation of letter names, or any great need for them to rhyme. > > I mean, sure, ‘Zee’ rhymes with B, C and P - and ‘Zed’ doesn’t, but we don’t pronounce Q as ‘kwee’, or F as ‘fee’. This has made me think. Why “kay” instead of “key”? Why “ess” instead of “see”? Why a pirate sound instead of “ree”. Why “y” instead of “yee”? That said, while not all letters are pronounced ending in “-ee”, no other letters end in “-ed”. “Zed” just sticks out like a sore thumb. Besides, it ruins the rhyme of the alphabet song. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/117 "2013-10-04T11:01:23Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > _A philandering Briton called Z > Once (very connivingly) S > “If the wife of my neighbour > Looks on me with favour > I can probably get her in B.”_ > [@Mangetout](#): > > I love the perplexity ‘Zed’ causes. It’s not as if there’s any great consistency in the pronunciation of letter names, or any great need for them to rhyme. > > I mean, sure, ‘Zee’ rhymes with B, C and P - and ‘Zed’ doesn’t, but we don’t pronounce Q as ‘kwee’, or F as ‘fee’. THAT’S what you got from my masterpiece??? You wound me, sirrah. Indeed, you cut me to the quick! ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [October 4, 2013, 1:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/118 "2013-10-04T13:56:15Z")
> [@Spoons](#): > > I’ve read written works in both American and British spelling, and understood both. Why can Americans not understand both, as the rest of us in the English-speaking world do? Americans, just understand that there are different spellings and deal! I think you missed the OP, which is precisely the opposite of this. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2013, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/119 "2013-10-06T02:34:22Z")
> [@Mangetout](#): > > I disagree that it’s exactly the same language (or nobody would be desiring to change any spelling) - this is as much an international question as it is an interlingual one anyway - this is something that happens across borders, not just languages. I fail to see why your opinion is relevant. American English and British English are the same language. They are only separate dialects. Not that that’s really relevant. Proper nouns are proper nouns. It’s not “Pearl harbor” but “Pearl Harbor.” That is its name, and changing a name because you think it is spelled wrong is always an insult. If you actually say it differently, you can spell it differently, by necessity. But if you say it the same way, you spell it the same way. That’s just the general etiquette. By your logic, we can respell all those towns in England to use our spelling, like, say, dropping the H off all the "burgh"s, as our word is “burg” or even “berg.” Heck, the Labour Party is made up of entirely common nouns, so we can spell it “Labor Party.” When you capitalize a word, that word is part of the name. Insisting that we use “Labour Party” and “Aldeburgh” while you use “Pearl Harbour” is hypocritical, whether you have a style guide implying that Americans are weird for insisting on proper spelling or not. I don’t care whether their actual intent is to insult. When you insist on one thing for yourself but disregard our own request for the same thing, it comes off as insulting, due the inherent implication that you deserve something we don’t. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [October 6, 2013, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007/120 "2013-10-06T02:54:17Z")
As for “zed”–the problem is not so much that it doesn’t end in “ee,” but that it’s an oddball. It’s the only letter beside H that ends in a consonant sound that the letter never makes. And at least an H is used to spell out “aitch,” and doesn’t make a song not rhyme. I know that zed is short for “zeta,” but I do not know why it wasn’t further shortened like the other letters, nor why the vowel didn’t shift. (My guess is that “aitch” comes from “eta.”) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-u-s-spelling-omit-the-u/670007.md?page=7)