Right you are. Rockville Centre (correct spelling) is a commuter town near New York City. Actually there are several instances of “Centre” appearing as a place name in the US–I was born in Centre County, PA, myself.
One word of advice to those who insist that “colour,” “honour,” etc. are the original and therefore “correct” spellings. During my time in England I was writing a thesis on the 16th-century Bible and had occasion to read several printed works dating from the period between 1520 to 1550 in England. Although spelling wasn’t always standardized, “honor” and “labor” were almost always spelled without the “u.” The “u” spellings came some time later on. Originality in spelling is never clear-cut.
You’re right, and i withdraw my criticism. Not specifically because this is the Pit; i believe that civil discussion can and should be carried on here at times. Rather, it had escaped my attention that SuperGnat was the OP, and if you’re going to open your own thread with a diatribe against people who use “incorrect” grammar and pronunciation, then you’re fair game for others who want to take you on.
You’ll have to excuse my ignorance here, but since when has “through” (as a preposition, at least) been incorrect or non-standard in America? Unless, of course, you are implying that “thru” is correct, and that “through” is a needless variant? If so, i take strong exception.
[hi-jack] Rockville Centre is a small town on Long Island, NY. (hmmm, should that instead be * in * LI, NY? But that doesn’t sound right either. Oh well) New york is not really known for it’s British population.
I was under the impression that in the US, theater is used for ‘movie theaters’ (where the masses go) whereas a theatre is the place where plays are performed - hence the “refined” spelling.
“Theatre” has alway struck me as a pretentious way to spell theater. As in “After the maid puts the roses in the vahz we will go to the thee-ah-tah”
My friends in the scenery and lighting world call the building a theater and the performance genre is also theater.
Likewise “Centre” Shopping malls trying to be hoity-toity about their merchants call themselvs Centres. The basic rule seems to be: If there’s an Orange Julius stand or a Radio Shack, it can’t be a Centre.
And Yumans are people unfortunate enough to be living in the bottom southwest corner of Arizona.
Can I just say, I also find it really annoying the way Americans say ‘herbs’ 'erbs.
For the love of God, American people! Pronounce that word properly! It is pronounced Herbs. HERBS. As Eddie Izzard says, it has a blinking h in it! Quit using that brain splattingly annoying pseudo French pronunciation already! You are Annoying ME!
Ooo I’m off to throw a cuddly toy across the room in frustration now x)
Every movie theater I’ve ever worked for (and there have been many) spells it theatre. So when referring to the specific place, I (and my coworkers) spell it theatre, but when writing of cinema houses in general we’d put movie theater. On my resume it looks like I don’t know how to spell.
There are places where those are different? You must be one of those who insist that caught and cot, whale and wail, marry and merry, are pronounced differently. Where I live, I believe I’m the only person I know for whom hour and our are homophones, but are and our aren’t.
Getting bent out of shape over minor differences in regional dialects is silly.
Well, except for using “uh” to mean “going to”. Bugs the hell out of me.
