In Canada we make use of the word “Centre” for locations such as the “Bell Centre” located in Montreal, Quebec. You can find a good list here and a more extensive list here. :PYou discuss about the children (“center” of “centre”?) For instance, some prefer to treat The University of Southern Mississippi will announce plans Tuesday for a men’s and women’s golf training center. Again, this doesn’t mean that the preference isn’t out there. By the 1950s when I was in elementary school, only “center” was considered correct American spelling for the word. I have NEVER seen it done the way you describe. Etymology suggests centre comes from old french for middle ‘centre’ – which is also the current French meaning and spelling. We just have difficulty finding it borne out in published U.K. English texts. These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'homophone.' Also, though don’t we rely on dictionaries for research (they’re historical), it is interesting that we can’t find this distinction noted in any of the major dictionaries, including the U.K. ones, and it’s not noted in any of the British style guides we use for reference. [He said his remark about his willingness to move the center, which was in answer to a question, was consistent with his previous statements. and descriptive (i.e. “Center” is the American spelling, and that’s the way it’s viewed. To quote a very famous patriotic commercial for a patriotic beer brand “it’s ZED, not ZEE, ZED!! “Center” would be a synonym for “middle”. We presume you’re talking about U.K. English (though we’ve heard similar suggestions about Canadian English). If Marquis de La Fayette had not crossed the Atlantic with his troops to help the rebels, English would still be spoken in North America. There’s no need to add superfluous letters that aren’t pronounced, especially when language evolution tends toward simplification and not complication.Please excuse the grammatical errors above. Why complain when a region is actually spelling a particular word more like it sounds? As much as I adore my leather-bound, gild-edged copy of the SOED, I take issue with a few of its definitions.
You may want to assign several homophones per student.
The OED certainly is, agreed, but I believe it is Oxford’s policy, like that of Collins and Macquarie (here in Australia), to strike a balance between being prescriptive (based on etymology, historical usage, etc.) It was invented in Britain a long time ago and given it’s highly appropriate name.
What about words like remembrance or monstrous?Centre is the correct English spelling for the word and at some point in the early 1800’s or earlier, an American misspelled it, and published said mistake. Homophone definition is - one of two or more words pronounced alike but different in meaning or derivation or spelling (such as the words to, too, and two). Centrelink, for example.In short you are wrong, however i agree that that should be how it is used much like meter and metre.You meant “It’s”. by forgetting to ask papa for it.
“Center” is several centuries older than the United States. Homophone Clues FREE . Let’s try a few searches of current news publications. Does that mean that the French should use the word computer instead or ordinateur, since the PC was invented in the US, or that Britons should write airplane instead of aeroplane because the first plane was invented in the US? For instance, some prefer to treat center as the word for a place or institution and centre as the word for the middle point of something.But while these preferences may be taught in some schools and are perhaps common among careful English speakers in Canada, the U.K., and elsewhere, they are not broadly borne out in 21st-century usage. Please forgive us :-(Please correct your comparison and explanation of the of the words “Centre” and “Center”. !”Those DAMNED Americans…..thinking they know everything and always driving around in their Camaro ZED-28’s!“Centre PERIOD.”? Notice how about the same time the internet started for the mass populace and more stupid people had access to incorrect spelling not knowing it was wrong. At first it seems simpler to phoneticise but it may just create a different complexity.But that capacity already exists in English with words like remembrance and monstrous (off the top of my head). It is interesting to note that, at least until the early 1930s, “centre” was the preferred spelling for the word in the New York Times. [AP (dead link)]This is clearly coming from an American thinking they know everyting about Britain again!Just a couple of examples for British English could be:Do you have any evidence for this besides your own examples? I do think ‘center’ should be dropped as it’s out of sync with the rest of the English-speaking world, but that’s more of a harmonisation problem than a logic problem.Depends on how you base the criteria for harmonization. I accept that both are used interchangeably and am not an advocate of sticking to historical spellings for the sake of it but I disagree that using center makes overall usage simpler when words like centrifuge and central retain that ‘tr’ ordering even in US. And prior to that Latin ‘centrum’ for middle. :)If you want to spell “centre” how it’s pronounced, you should be spelling it “senter”!If you look at the second graph – the adoption of ‘center’ in the UK I suggest the shape the graph is heavily influenced by the adoption of spell check on computers, particularly MS Word. Espescially since some of our textbooks use center while most use centre.How the hell can you get confused? Book Center, Sports Center etc. Then we were taught to spell it “centre”.Central is to centre as center is to enter…… maybe?I think you meant: mistre, mastre, carpentre, newspapre, computre, printre, bindre, dressmakre, etc!
My 2011 Oxford English Dictionary says ‘center’ is the US spelling of centre. The way people on both sides of the pond distinguish homonyms like row, bow, wind, tear, sow, and lead, for example.“For example, we should use “centeral” instead of “central”…”Centre being the middle of the road versus Center being A Civic Center, as examples, were taught as the correct English spelling in Rochester NY grammar schools during the 1940’s.“Center” gets really awkward when extended to Central.So, we should be pronouncing it “sen-tre” instead of “sen-ter”?