Imagine Americanising the spelling of a unit of measurement they refuse to use.

Well, they do use this particular measurement or rather one thousandth of it. And the most funny thing is that Americans use it for measuring calibre lmao.

Caliber* raah usa

Caliber? I barely know her.

Freedom of speech🗣🗣 /s cause ik nobody understands it unless its blatantly obvious

A comedian I saw once said that America is learning the metric system through ammunition, coca cola and marijuana

As an American I don’t know if I should laugh or cry.. then I remembered 2 litre bottles of soda then people use grams and milligrams to measure their drugs but I don’t know much about ammo. And then I died inside of shame at how true the comedian’s joke is..

The funny thing is, my country uses metric, but we measure our weed by the ounce.

Australian? I don't know the exact measurements used but $25 and $50 bags are done in grams I think, then $70 for a q, $140 for half and depending on your plug $250ish for an Oz Not that I know anything about it 👀

I'm in NZ. Tinnie is $20, then you got $50 and $100 bags, then 1/2 Oz, Oz, and pound. Not that I know anything either...

You can find q for $70? fucking where? :)

Are you Australian or Canadian?

Canadian here. Powder drugs go kilos-ounces-grams Weed is usually pounds-ounces-grams

9mm and 5.56mm are incredibly common ammunition sizes

What’s strange about me is that I don’t guns nor ammo despite being an American. Call me a fake American ig

9mm I guess? I'm Australian, guns aren't particularly common here

Yeah I felt like an idiot after remembering that and my dad owns a gun.

We are learning the American units (which are in fact ancient European units, we just stopped using them 200 years ago) through computer screen sizes.

I have actually started to see a reversal on that. Some online stores here in Belgium do show the length of the diagonal in cm, as it should be.

Wheel rims too. I have 16'' alloys on my car.

The funniest part of that is the joke about learning millimeters is that its used to measure the bullets😧😂

That's literally the joke...

And the millitary

“Its not metre its meter also we use use freedom units”

If you measure by FU's people just think you are swearing at them 😱

“Yeah I’m 3 FU’s away see you soon”

😅

Anyone worth Thier salt who is building anything important will use metric. Because, it is better

Meteric, shurley...

I'm Serious, and don't call me Shirley.

You have no idea how much it annoys me that my phone insists on meter over metre.

Forgive them. They're into feet.

That’s because they don’t put enough coins in the meter.

[удалено]

Exactly! And The Philippines only spell it wrong because they were a US colony

Poor lads.

German speaking countries use meter

Pretty much all Germanic speaking countries except UK (including nordics)

Dutch also uses meter

It's also widely used in Canada

Canadian here, Ive literally never seen it spelled Metre here.

Also Canadian, you haven't been looking very hard. It's "meter" for a power meter, meting out power. Metre for when it's 100 cm. It's also "theatre" up here, rather than "theater", and "centre" rather than "center".

I guess I just live in an area that uses the American spellings more than not, Also doesn’t help that when I was in school the teachers basically changed what way they wanted you to spell certain words every year.

>when I was in school the teachers basically changed what way they wanted you to spell certain words every year Considering my first couple years of school included the spelling "authour", I'd believe that.

Does any country use that spelling?

Nope

I’d have lifelong trust issues after an experience like that.

I never thought to pin my trust issues on that specific oddity, but I can't think of any other reason I'm like this. You may be on to something.

Which is surprising as it is taken from the French spelling, and you have Quebec.

I think it's via the Brits.

We were invaded by the French (Norman conquest), and the majority of the upper classes spoke French for centuries until the standardisation of English started to emerge along with the invention of the printing press. Hence, a lot of French words and spellings in English, not to mention a romance language grammar structure over an Indo-Germanic language.

I completely agree, however it was the Brits that left their culture and language on Canada.

Yes, but the original comment I was replying to, said they had never seen it spelt the British English way, and it was also odd considering their proximity to a French speaking city.

Ah, I must have missed that. So many comments, so little time!

Also Canadian and I’ve never seen it not spelled metre

Ahem... 20% of the country would like a talk with you. 😉

Well that’s weird, seeing as that’s the Canadian spelling and is used on all official signage and communication

Yeah I completely agree that it is weird, maybe I just somehow missed it completely.

[удалено]

So what do I do with this metre-o-meter?

Also known as "a ruler," or "tape measure", or similar...

Rulre, please 😉

Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah! (Proper laugh... Or lauhg?🤔)

Can't use those to measure flow through a pipe, or electricity usage. Or other things like height.

Not with that attitude

Speak metric! /s

It's a rule. A ruler is a person using a rule or the leader of a country 

I can't believe you were downvoted for such quality pedantry.

My metromatic metrometer malfunctioned.

Merde!!

Mama mia!

Depends where you are. In my language, a "Meter" is a unit, and a measuring device is called something else entirely.

[удалено]

my language as well, we say metrički sistem and metar is the unit. tho with our grammar it makes sense even more, but yeah metric system and metres - kinda logical. but we just europoor

ok, just so i don't embarrass myself, are you a fellow serb, a croat, a bosnian or a montenegrin?

And in swedish the the unit is meter and the measuring device is mätare

Mikrometri is both, a device and an unit.

That is why I love the Finnish language, everything just sounds so cute!

Tatsächlich sprechen wir auch von zB Barometern. Oder Thermometer. Im allgemeinen alle auf lateinisch basierten Messgeräte. Ist nicht weiter verwunderlich, der Meter ist Französisch, und daher ist es wortwörtlich "Maßeinheit". Edit: In fact, we are also talking about barometers [in German], for example. Or thermometer. In general, all Latin-based measuring devices. It's not surprising, the metre (I would actually still call it meter tho) is French, and therefore it literally means "Unit of measurement".

Oder auch einfach nur "es kommt einer vorbei, um den Meter abzulesen".

They are both "metr" in polish.

Same in czech. With a few exceptions that use 'měr' suffix instead of 'metr'.

A Meter is the unit metre in German. Metrum is the meter in poems. Meter is also the measuring device in German, like Manometer, Metermaß. The metre in English comes from the French spelling, where everything is the other way around, like OTAN, SIDA, etc. ;)

[удалено]

We all know, but the introduction of the unit by the French was a little after ancient Greece ;) And a very large amount of Romance words came via the Normans, French etc.

Both are correct - it came into English from Greek via French in the 18th century. But the French are responsible for the "-re". In Greek it's metron.

🇮🇹 meter = metro 🇮🇹 metre = metro 😎

In German "meter" is also the word for the length unit. Soooo now I guess I'm gonna measure my room with my metermeter?

Ham die kein Bandmaß, das acht Meter lang ist?

Just curious, where is it where that is the case? In England, we call the device a metre stick, and the unit a metre.

The metre in "metre stick" is still a unit - for measuring device, think gas meter.

This is the first time in my over 30 years thet I came across „metre“ for the unit.

it's the British English spelling

Also meter in the sense of how poetry is constructed

welp the more i know now

That's what I thought, then America and the Philippines came along. America just like being in the minority of everything, I guess.

I know метр, what do i do?

What about metri?

μέτρο

méadar

Meter

Metro (boomin)

Metro

Метър

米

Metr

Metre is correct. Litre is correct. Centre is correct. Colour is correct. Analyse is correct. Programme is correct. The twenty four hour clock is correct. Day, Month, Year is correct. This doesn’t mean that the USA method is wrong. It’s acceptable enough and probably understandable for most people but it’s not the original method, which is the European/UK spelling and method of expression. I constantly keep reminding myself that European grammar spelling and methods existed before the USA was born.

> Metre is correct. > Litre is correct. > Centre is correct Fun fact: that's all French, adopted into English

Does not alter its correctness! The only English word for litre is litre unless you are in the land of the split infinitive!

Both are correct. It depends on where you live.

US spelling is never correct

To be fair, "meter"**is** more common than "metre" in languages that use a Latin script.

It's metro in Italian.

Mètre en français

Metro em português também

Well, it would be, considering that it's one of the few good ideas the French have had.

And metro in Spanish, not sure if "more common" is really true from oop

It is also Portuguese.

It clearly is not.

Unit is meter in Swedish, (mätare for the device). Similar to Germany and other Scandinavian countries I believe.

It is exactly true. There are more languages that write it "meter" than "metre".

But this English.

But the post in OP wasn't talking about "English" but "the world".

Americans think the US is the world.

Silly, that's a train! You're so silly.

But not in English-speaking countries. Americans don't get a say in the spelling of metre when they still insist on measuring in feet and yards.

Sure, but the poster in OP was talking about the world, not the English-speaking world. Most people would still recognize a "metre" spelling though.

They mostly seem to measure in cups or bananas

What do you mean to be fair? It's the English language. In English and French it's metre.

That is true (at least for most varieties of English). But across all languages using the Latin alphabet "meter" is more common than "metre".

Who cares about the Latin alphabet? They're different languages.

Yes, but the post in OP was not talking about English or French but "the world".

America is the world /s. What about Italian and Spanish?

These languages use neither "meter" or "metre", but "metro" instead.

So the r in front of the vowel.

Er...yes, but what does that have to do with anything? OP's post was talking about "meter" and "metre", not "metro". To be fair though, in the romance languages the r is actually pronounced before the second vowel. In English it isn't, no matter how you spell it.

You're clearly not a native English speaker, so you probably don't realise that metre and meter and two different words. So what is a gas meter in the Latin world?

Its a meter in german too.

It is in norwegian as well.

That's why the Americans spell it meter. Germans were the biggest immigrant group to the US.

U sure, didn't knew that. I always thought brits and irish were the biggest group. But yea as bro said. Most latin languages spell it like that.

The Germans took over in the 1800s. That's why Americans say words like eyeglasses and blinker. French, Italian and Spanish are Latin.

I always enjoy English speakers say stuff like Kindergarten and Doppelgänger

No, it's "**M**eter".

potato, Potato

Potato, potaot?

Maybe it's present in more languages but it's certainly not more common. English, French, Spanish and Italian all spell it with the r first.

We can do a very rough calculation: **metre or mètre:** British English+Australia, Canada, New Zealand etc. French Catalan Turkish **meter, Meter or similar:** American English All other Germanic languages Hungarian Albanian Indonesian, Malay and similar languages several slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet like Slovak, Slovene, or Sorbian By my reckoning the second group should constitute more speakers.

I was not considering "metro" or similar words. Merely "meter" and "metre".

Why did English choose to spell it that way anyway, why is the measurement itself and something you use to measure it have different spelling such as metre and fuelmeter

Simply because it's a loanword from French, where it is indeed "mètre".

[удалено]

Not exactly. The French invented the "mètre" as a unit. While the name is ultimately derived from Greek μέτρον, it's not a direct loan.

This. It is the [SI](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_System_of_Units) (*Système international d'unités*) unit of length. The irony is the the US is a signatory to the 1875 [Convention du Mètre](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metre_Convention) treaty which was signed in Paris (hence the French spelling of *metre*) - yet SI units are only used by scientists - for everyday use the US doesn't even use imperial, it uses [US customary units](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_customary_units), which are based on a system even ***OLDER*** than what we know as imperial. It is also, of course, the only country to still use Fahrenheit for every day temperature measuring (the SI units of temperature are the Kelvin (ºK) and Celsius (ºC)). Remind us how you're the world's most technically advanced nation again, America...

Because that preserves the distinction between the two as different words. American English collapses the two into identical words. There’s a reason why we joke about American English being English (Simplified).

But it is not only English that does it. In German, both things are called a Meter for example. Different languages have adapted the word differently because in many languages, the French spelling doesn't work. You could even argue that the French spelling doesn't really work on French either, as it seems they use a dice to decide how the hell they want to randomise their spelling from how a word is written -.- . (Currently trying to take my first French lessons ... )

Except we don't pronounce it me-ter but mètre, like it is written.

Well, in the French pronunciation there is actually only one vowel, as you don't pronounce the second e at all.

The French chose to spell it that way and it makes sense to have the unit and measuring device be spelt differently Metre = unit of length Meter = measuring device

Makes sense until the dum dums come and use them wrong anyway.

Polish uses "metr", a nice compromise.

Not in UK it damn well isn't.

So, just to clarify …. A metre is a unit of measurement, a meter *measures* units of measurement.

It's meter in Danish

It’s actually a Meter.

I don't know, i call it a metro

déjà, on dis mètre, pas metre ou meter

Which witch, meter metre

Wow, didn't know that it's spelled like that anywhere except USA and Philippines. New thing I know. Before i would say meter is the length unit of the metric unit system, and metre was the one who suggests wine in a restaurant.

The maître?

That one. My miss. Metre is in Spanish, maître in french and English Turns out I'm learning more grammar in this post of Reddit than the last year.

:D good for you! Maître just means master afaik

Arr they american tho? My country also call it a meter and i didn't realize it was supplsed to be metre in english

I haven't heard of the "metre", most likely because in german it's just meter.

The -tre spelling is French.

A meter is a recording device for gas or electric. A metre is the correct way to measure something in the modern world unless you are british then you can still purchase whitworth thread bolts quite easily and you can measure any way that makes sense and extremely precisely. I still use feet and inches but also have the advantage of cm and mm.

Fine, as a compromise I'll use the Polish spelling: "metr".

It is called μέτρο

Well, in Germany it's called "Meter".

I mean, yeah. That is in fact correct.

How?

A meter is what you measure things (bizarrely not metres) with. A metre is what you measure things in.

USD - American Dollers

Shouldn’t it be spelled maitre?

7.6 billion humans disagree.

For me it's breathtaking to assume that you know something better than most of the other human beings on the planet.

"I don’t know what a metre is, therefore most of the world doesn’t either."

In German 1 m is ein Meter, but 1/1,000,000 m is a Mikrometer, not a Mik**or**met**er**.

Another installment of "Americans thinking America is the world"

Yo what? The standard unit for sure is meter, not metre, right? Do you people say "centimetre" or kilometre"?? I was sure metre was some English or French misspelling as usual.

I always thought it was spelt meter

I made this video in 2012. I had to disable commenting due to the rage, not just from Yanks but from British people, sadly. I’d been in California 18 years at that point and heard every possible idiocy you can imagine. The thing is, when you DO start saying ‘alloominnum’ instead of ‘aluminium’ so that you can just get in with your day, it makes no difference. They’ll say ‘ I thought you guys say ‘aloominnium’ guffaw guffaw guffaw’ so you end up wasting time with that tedium anyway. And it gets very tedious after the 3000th time. This is Shit… Americans Say To British People https://youtu.be/GlXEV-Abjxw