2006-12-03 03:08:51 · 12 answers · asked by Anonymous in Arts & Humanities ➔ Theater & Acting
Theatre is the common spelling in Britain, theater is common in the US. When Merriam-Webster was writing his dictionary, he made the decision to change the spellings of certain words to match their pronunciation. Hence, theatre became theater; -ise became -ize; and colour became color.
2006-12-03 03:13:05 · answer #1 · answered by Joy M 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
The truth is, one is British, the other American. Similar words are "Center", "Colour", etc.
It is believe by some that a "theater" is a building, while "theatre" is the art form. (As in, "I'm a theatre major.") There is really no basis for this, though.
2006-12-03 20:30:20 · answer #2 · answered by snide76258 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Theater is a movie theater. Theatre is a performing arts theatre.
2006-12-03 13:23:01 · answer #3 · answered by Potato 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
The word 'theatre' derives from the French language.
The spelling 'theater' is an Americanisation, the same as 'program' instead of 'programme', 'color' for 'colour', etc.
2006-12-03 11:14:35 · answer #4 · answered by David74 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Theatre is very much french. "Le theatre" is the theater. Theater is just the American way of saying theatre.
2006-12-03 12:09:52 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
The -re spelling is mostly Britannic; I can tell you that in English-Canada, the spelling is still like this. I have a few examples:
Centre, fibre, etc...
Funnily, this is the french spelling for words. There are some other distinctions: Flour, may be pronounced: flour or flower depending where you live.
2006-12-03 11:16:41 · answer #6 · answered by heicktopiertz 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
'theatre' was probably originally French and was adopted into the English language and remained as such for hundreds of years.
'theater' is an American variation made relatively recently.
2006-12-03 11:20:16 · answer #7 · answered by Palamino 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Well, as far as I know, in Britain they spell "theatre" as they do for "centre". The pronunciation in both cases is "er".
American, use the pronunciation for spelling the word just for easy it.
2006-12-03 11:15:43 · answer #8 · answered by Walter Frungilo 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Give the 10 to Joy M
2006-12-03 16:12:17 · answer #9 · answered by DIY Doc 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
ask Brett Favre
2006-12-03 11:14:01 · answer #10 · answered by timbo44b 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋