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.

　　人们常常认为在英语中只有唯一一种正确的拼写方法。然而，在英语拼写中，其实没有唯一的客观权威。英语和许多语言一样，是有生命的东西。它随着时间的推移而变化，在拼写单词方面有许多不同的地区差异。

　　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).

　　当然，这会导致一些困惑。关于某些单词的拼写方法的争论已经持续了几个世纪。也许这方面最著名(或最臭名昭著)的例子是当美国词典编纂者诺亚·韦伯斯特在他的字典中“简化”了单词的拼写，把字母u从含有ou的单词中删除，例如用color替代colour，用neighbor而不是neighbour。他还把字母S换成Z，例如单词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.

　　这不仅引发了美国和英国在某些单词的拼写上的差异，也引发了人们对我们日常生活中使用的美国单词的拼法的争论。看一看这些最令人困惑的……看看你同意这一拼法还是另外一种。

　　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，牛津英语词典的主要编纂者Sir James Murray调查了英国人更喜欢使用gray还是grey，结果模棱两可。

　　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.

　　当时英国的大多数人更喜欢把它拼成grey。然而，一些印刷商——包括有名望的《泰晤士报》——使用的是gray这一拼写。甚至还有一些人对此做出了回应，grey的颜色比gray的要浅。自从Murray的时代以来，这一争论已经有了一些定论，尽管双方都有分歧。

　　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世纪，grey已成为英国常用的单词拼法，而gray在美国最常用。这个词来自古英语，没有证据优势来证明哪种拼写更正确。

　　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，无论是gray还是grey，都可能是正确的，这取决于你生活在大西洋的哪一边。

　　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，有时拼成OK，甚至，一度，okeh，这些都是未知的。有多少种理论就有多少种拼写。

　　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.

　　通常情况下，所有大写的单词，如OK，都是首字母缩写，这意味着每个字母都代表一个单词——就像US代表United States一样。但是OK中的字母可能代表的单词已经被时间的沙子所遗忘了。词典编纂者Allen Walker Read在1838年提出，OK代表“Oll Korrect”或“Ole Kurreck”，这是拼错单词的流行风尚的一部分，但这一说法很难证实。

　　Others, including President Woodrow Wilson, attributed the word to the Choctaw okeh, meaning "it is so," and spelled it accordingly.

　　其他人，包括伍德罗·威尔逊总统，将这个词归于Choctaw okeh，意思是“确实如此”，并相应地拼写。

　　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，当这个词在1839年第一次在印刷中出现时，它被拼写为OK。但是，到了20世纪，许多出版物都使用了更优雅的okay这一拼写。你用哪种拼写真的取决于你自己——没有明确的答案。美联社推荐OK;芝加哥手册更喜欢okay。