It's often assumed that there is only one right way to spell things in the English language. However, there is no single objective authority on English spelling. English, like many languages, is a living thing. It changes over time, with many different regional variations on how to spell words.
人們常常認為在英語中只有唯一一種正確的拼寫方法。然而，在英語拼寫中，其實沒有唯一的客觀權威。英語和許多語言一樣，是有生命的東西。它隨著時間的推移而變化，在拼寫單詞方面有許多不同的地區差異。
That can lead to some confusion, of course. Debates on the way to spell certain words have been raging for centuries. Perhaps the most famous (or infamous) example of this is when American lexicographer Noah Webster "simplified" spelling in his dictionary by dropping the letter -u from words with -ou, as in color for colour and neighbor instead of neighbour. He also exchanged S for Z, in words like analyze (instead of analyse).
當然，這會導致一些困惑。關於某些單詞的拼寫方法的爭論已經持續了幾個世紀。也許這方面最著名(或最臭名昭著)的例子是當美國詞典編纂者諾亞·韋伯斯特在他的字典中「簡化」了單詞的拼寫，把字母u從含有ou的單詞中刪除，例如用color替代colour，用neighbor而不是neighbour。他還把字母S換成Z，例如單詞analyze(而不是analyse)。
This sparked many differences not only between American and UK spellings of certain words, but also debated spellings of American words we use in our everyday lives. Read on for some of the most confusing ... and see if you agree with one spelling or the other.
這不僅引發了美國和英國在某些單詞的拼寫上的差異，也引發了人們對我們日常生活中使用的美國單詞的拼法的爭論。看一看這些最令人困惑的……看看你同意這一拼法還是另外一種。
grey or gray
In November of 1893, lexicographer Sir James Murray, primary editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, looked into whether Brits were more likely to use gray or grey. The results were ambiguous.
1893年11月，牛津英語詞典的主要編纂者Sir James Murray調查了英國人更喜歡使用gray還是grey，結果模稜兩可。
A majority of people in the UK at the time were more likely to spell it grey. However, some printers—including the venerable Times—used the spelling gray. There were even some people who responded that grey was a lighter color than gray. Since Murray's time, the debate has become a bit more settled, although there are differences on either side of the pond.
當時英國的大多數人更喜歡把它拼成grey。然而，一些印刷商——包括有名望的《泰晤士報》——使用的是gray這一拼寫。甚至還有一些人對此做出了回應，grey的顏色比gray的要淺。自從Murray的時代以來，這一爭論已經有了一些定論，儘管雙方都有分歧。
By the 20th century, grey had become the usual spelling of the word in the UK, while gray was most often used in the US. The word comes from Old English, and there isn't a preponderance of evidence as to which spelling would be "more" correct.
到了20世紀，grey已成為英國常用的單詞拼法，而gray在美國最常用。這個詞來自古英語，沒有證據優勢來證明哪種拼寫更正確。
So, moral of the story, either gray or grey could be correct, depending on which side of the Atlantic you live on.
因此，故事的寓意，無論是gray還是grey，都可能是正確的，這取決於你生活在大西洋的哪一邊。
okay or OK
The origins of okay, sometimes spelled OK and even, at one point, okeh, are unknown. There are as many theories as there are spellings.
okay的起源，有時拼成OK，甚至，一度，okeh，這些都是未知的。有多少種理論就有多少種拼寫。
Typically, a word in all capitals, like OK, is an acronym, implying that each letter stands for a word—like how US stands for United States. But what the letters in OK may stand for has been lost to the sands of time. Lexicographer Allen Walker Read argued in 1838 that OK stood for "Oll Korrect" or "Ole Kurreck," part of a fad for misspelled words, but that claim is hard to substantiate.
通常情況下，所有大寫的單詞，如OK，都是首字母縮寫，這意味著每個字母都代表一個單詞——就像US代表United States一樣。但是OK中的字母可能代表的單詞已經被時間的沙子所遺忘了。詞典編纂者Allen Walker Read在1838年提出，OK代表「Oll Korrect」或「Ole Kurreck」，這是拼錯單詞的流行風尚的一部分，但這一說法很難證實。
Others, including President Woodrow Wilson, attributed the word to the Choctaw okeh, meaning "it is so," and spelled it accordingly.
其他人，包括伍德羅·威爾遜總統，將這個詞歸於Choctaw okeh，意思是「確實如此」，並相應地拼寫。
At any rate, when the word first appeared in print in 1839, it was spelled OK. But, by the 20th century, many publications were using the somewhat more elegant spelling of okay. Which of these spellings you use is really up to you—there's no clear answer. The Associated Press recommends OK; the Chicago Manual prefers okay.
至少，當這個詞在1839年第一次在印刷中出現時，它被拼寫為OK。但是，到了20世紀，許多出版物都使用了更優雅的okay這一拼寫。你用哪種拼寫真的取決於你自己——沒有明確的答案。美聯社推薦OK;芝加哥手冊更喜歡okay。