May 13th , 2012
Savvy Sunday
So let me open with this dilemma: Is it supposed to be “gray” or “grey”?
And the answer is simply: It depends.
Both gray and grey are acceptable spellings. Gray is used primarily in the United States and other areas that use US English. Similarly, grey is used in Great Britain and other areas that use UK English.
Having said that, do note that there are 3 exceptions to the rule:
1. Proper nouns such as a last name would always be spelled “Gray”. For instance, Earl Grey should be Earl Gray instead.
2. The dog breed, Greyhound.
3. Food irradiation (quantity of radiation energy absorbed by the food as it passes through the radiation field during processing). 1 Gray = 0.001 kGy = 1 joule of energy absorbed per kilogram of food irradiated.
In terms of COLOUR, grey and gray are actually two different “color swatches”. Many people believe grey is an actual color perceived as the hue of “silver”, and gray is a sliding scale of values from black to white.
Try out Facebook poll to see how you match up against others in knowing how to use grey/gray!
Use Ginger Grammar & Spell Checker for the correct answers to the Facebook poll.
Posted in Archive