Welcome all to Writer’s Confusion #2. Today we will talk about gray vs. grey. This isn’t really a super-important topic when it comes to writing, but I’ve been confused about it for a long time. The funny thing about this is that once I found the answer, I started asking/talking to friends about it, and it has become quite a popular topic (yes, we are NERDS. WORD NERDS).
So we want to talk about iron skies, or geriatric hair color. But is grey the correct word? Or is it gray? Is it important? Maybe…if you are a Grammar Fascist (or British).
I would like to ask everyone…was I the only one that felt really weird about being unsure if I should use grey or gray? Every time I had to write ‘gray skies’ or ‘grey hair’ I waffled for about two minutes as to which one was the correct one…
So, let’s do this!
Writer’s Confusion #2 – Grey vs. Gray
Right. So. Look here mate! Oi! This is the correct version of the dickey bird in the King’s pommy: GREY.
Yo. This here is the ‘Murken (American) way: GRAY.
Yep. It is just THAT simple. If you are British, or speak the King’s English proper, then grey is the way you will spell it probably 95% of the time.
If you are an American, you will probably spell it gray.
Now you can probably see why this is such a good topic of conversation around word nerds! The real and proper answer is that either version is perfectly fine. No one will troll you for using grey or gray instead of gray or grey. Well, someone will probably troll you at some point. That’s what the internet is about. In the meantime, since I’m an American, I have begun to use grey since it is the British version, and there’s nothing I like more in life than annoying the hell out of my British friends!
A couple of web references I used: Ref-1 Ref-2
PS: And remember kids – it’s vs. its
its = possessive. This blog is its own worst enemy.
it’s = contraction of it is. It’s the worst blog on the internet.