Gray is a color, while grey is a colour.
this post was submitted on 16 Jun 2026
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No Stupid Questions
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grey - 🇬🇧 english (traditional)
gray - 🇺🇸 english (simplified)
This is correct, but for some reason in my head I think of gray as warm toned (like with yellow or brown undertones) and grey as cool toned (like with blue or purple undertones).
I have no idea why my brain has decided this is the way.
What?! It's exactly the opposite, obviously!
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I'm splitting hairs but I always read
grey - 🇨🇦 english (eh)
gray - 🇺🇸 english (simplified)
grey - 🇬🇧 english (traditional)
gr*y - 🇦🇺 english (explicit)
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E is the European version, A is the American version. This sounds trite, but is true, and makes it simple to know which one to use
. . . Unless you’re in the majority of the English speaking world, which includes India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Of course, grey is the appropriate spelling for all of those but Canada, which uses both.
Canada, which uses both
græy /s
Canadas english is weird
Especially when it comes to measurements (weight, volume, mass, temperature)
What’s wrong with Canada’s weights and measures?
Everything is in SI units.
Unless you’re cooking, where heat is in Fahrenheit, solid measures are in cups teaspoons and tablespoons (but liquids are in litres and weights are in grams).
Or in construction, where you work in feet and yards. Or measuring a person’s height.
But while someone might be 6’ tall, their stride length will be in metres, as will their arm span.
So yeah; simple. It’s not like Canada has tons of people weighing in tonnes.
A "Pint" of beer served commercially in Canada must be 20 imperial (UK) ounces (aka ~568 mL), with a 2.5% margin of error permitted within the law, unlike a US pint (16 US fl oz ~473mL).
Just for fun, "Une pinte" of alcohol in French served commercially is "a quart" of alcohol in English which is double that value.
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No need to downvote this comment
Even canadians agree that we have a weird mix of different systems in play
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Australia uses both, but grey is "correct".
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It is spelled grey in correct English. In the USA, they like spelling it gray.
All language is made up. There is no ‘correct’.
Standardisation of language is not pointless. Shared standards serve concrete functions:
- When 8 billion people write "colour" the same way, you don't pause to decode variants
- Technical manuals, legal documents, medical instructions need precision: ambiguity costs lives
- Cross-generational understanding: Shakespeare's English is already hard without adding modern variation to the mix
- Standardized spelling keeps homophones distinct (their/there/they're)
Standardisation of language isn't about one version being inherently right. It's about shared agreement that enables function at scale.
shakespeare spelled it "color" multiple times
Case in point for his English being hard to understand
And it's agreed that both Grey and Gray are acceptable variants, and they will be right up until they aren't for one arbitrary reason or another.
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I think it's a USA vs European English thing.
I prefer the 'grey' spelling though, even though 'gray' is most common in the states.
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I know it's an American vs other English speaking countries thing, but as an American I can honestly never remember which one we are. I always used to look it up, but now I just shoot from the hip and assume I'm right, which feels the most American way to approach it.
I think that’s what most Americans do. I don’t think I’ve thought about how to spell it in decades. I just spell it both ways depending on the day.
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Yes
I know that this is “no stupid questions” but it boggles the mind that people post in forums when the answer is either yes/no, or a single sentence explanation available in a web search.
we should just not have Lemmy at all and only read news articles, wikipedia and talk to ourselves
I’m glad you asked. This is something I never realized how often I have brief flashes of curiosity about before I yolo it and never bothered looking up. As soon as I saw the title I was looking forward to reading what people had to say.
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(2 replies)
Gray in the US. Grey elsewhere.
It's pronounced gay ya twats
Yes
Either way is correct.
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