h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Are there any rules for when British spelling prefers a 're' ending to an 'er' ending? (eg: theatre instead of theater)

Just wondering, because I always check entries for American spelling, but aside from 'theatre' 'centre' and a few others, I don't really know what to look out for. And most words seem to follow the 'er' ending. (header, footer...)

There probably is a rule, but goodness knows what it is. It could be something to do with verbs, and agent nouns. A header heads something, so it ends in 'er', but a theatre doesn't theat anything as far as I know. Does that make any sense?

I think it's just etymology, the fact that 'theatre', 'centre', 'metre' are all derived directly from the French (which spells them like that) and header and so on aren't (the 'er' ending on verbs is there in many Anglo-Saxon surnames, Miller, Cooper etc. ... and that comes from German instead )

metre - a unit of length, the speed of music or the syllabic structure of poetry.

meter - a measuring device or the act of measuring (derived from "mete").


There's never an infallible rule for things in the English language, but there's a couple of guidlines I can think of:

Like David said, if it's a verb derived from a noun, it's likely to be -er.

-re rarely follows a consonant other than t (meagre, genre [but that's pronounced differently], acre).

Best bet is to check a dictionary if you're not sure.

your kidding... meagre?

Thanks. It's hard to search for every word in an entry that ends with 'er' and check it against a dictionary.