29 Jun 2023 2:18 pm
Well, ChatGPT is wrong. Grey and Gray used to be correct spellings in the US. The spelling "Grey" was phased out as a correct spelling in the US nearly 4 decades ago. It is no longer considered correct here. It is still acceptable in the UK.Punch » 29 Jun 2023, 1:02 pm » wrote: ↑ Keen observation. I did know both were acceptable. I have been reading Wodehouse recently, maybe that explains my subconscious usage.
ChatGPT:
Grey and gray are both correct spellings of the same word, which means the color between black and white. The only difference is that **grey** is more common in **British English**, while **gray** is more common in **American English.
I find this quite interesting. ChatGPT got this wrong because it lacks understanding of nuance, locality and time.
Now, this is not all that easy to find. However, in the 1990s, a movement began in the U.S. to establish national educational standards for students across the country. This included spelling. There were attempts at this since 1969, but it was never consistently applied. So, while the dictionaries seem to recognize both spellings, in U.S., public and private schools simply eliminated the dual spellings of many word which also have a British variation. For testing purposes, redundant variations in spelling needed to be eliminated. This was eventually included in Common Core, which came about around 2008. This was pushed by the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers.
So, if you are a Middle School student writing a paper for an English class in any of the 50 States, and you use spellings like "grey", "colour", "neighbour" or "bleu (hardly ever seen except in french speaking areas), you will get a BIG RED X.