" Grille " versus " Grill "
 

So have I been spelling it wrong, or is the opening on the front of my car actually called a " grill " ?

I thought it was " grille ", but I see it both ways, and I honestly have been in doubt - sometimes even going back and writing 'grill' in place of "grille"

Wikipedia seems confusing as well :

" A grille or grill (French word from Latin craticula, small grill) is an opening of several slits side by side in a wall or metal sheet or other barrier, usually to let air or water enter and/or leave but keep larger objects including people and animals in or out. "

:D

As far as I know, both are perfectly correct.

Wiktionary seems to agree: grille - Wiktionary

It's grille.

Spell it wrong and meet your banhammer fate.

Grille I always thought it went with the bonnet, boot, drop head coupe, spanner crowd :)

You'd think I'd prefer "grill" ... fewer letters is more economical after all. :D

Don't grille me... Grill my grille!

:eek:

If it is grille, then why isn't it hille, or bille, or gille, or pille, or dille, or spille?

I'd never seen it spelled "grille" in my life until I found EcoModder. It just looks so wrong! lol.
I'm sticking with "Grill". I'm stubborn. lol.

My guess is that historically it is 'grille', but Americans have a tendency to drop letters, whether this is because of laziness, modernization of the language, or to differentiate themselves from their British origins, I do not know. Examples:

• color instead of colour,
• aluminum instead of aluminium,
• filet instead of fillet,
• program instead of programme,
• BBQ instead of barbecue,
• W instead of George W. Bush,
• etc.

Ever since the difference in spelling between 'grille' and 'grill' caught my attention, I have been using 'grille' since it seems to have more in common with automotive terminology and is less likely to be confused with a barbecue grill.

I always thought grille was on a car and grill is what you cook on.

however I cook on my engine, so it gets confusing.......

Everyone else=one way
USA=another way

IE the metric system. Why would you want to do something that makes sense when you can be dumb.