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Any Differences Between Theatre and Theater?

What is the difference between "theatre" and "theater"?


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If you are in the United Kingdom, you are likely to eat a different kind of chips and a different kind of fries than what you would in the United States. Misunderstanding is expected given there are over a thousand words in British that have different meanings in American English. Aside from vocabulary, American and British English also differ in how some words are spelled. Words like fiber and fibre; liter and litre; center and centre are just some of the examples. The ones ending in “-re” are what British English use while the ones ending in “-er” for American English.

America’s “theater” versus British’s “theatre” is also another example of words with different spellings but mean the same thing. Interestingly, these were being used interchangeably especially among Americans in the Northeastern region. Some American theatrical groups use “theater” to refer to a movie house and “theatre” to refer to live performances venue. Yet, there is no general rule to follow for the “theater” and “theatre” word usage even for professional writers. It’s up to anyone what he feels like using.

Tracing the history of colonialism, northeastern regions of the United States are those parts of the original Thirteen Colonies –colonies of British America. Language experts linked history to explain why some Americans use “theatre” over the American way of spelling it. Studies also suggest that Americans used to speak the British English during colonization. This is not only limited to United States as other former British colonies still adapt the British word spelling.

The use of “theater” and “theatre” was also given implication by some. Those who use the “-re” spelling are considered superior. Nonetheless, several authorities of the American English would opt to use “theater” just like the daily American newspaper, The New York Times. The bottom line, everyone is free to decide how “theater” or “theatre” should be spelled. Word processors won’t even indicate a red wavy line on these words which only means both should be acceptable.
Oct 19th, 2012 at 12:15 AM
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