I’ve always thought that mold is the fungus, and to mould is to shape. When talking about it with my colleagues yesterday, I was surprised that this isn’t common. Most people use one of the two spellings to refer to both.
Doing a quick search on duckduckgo also confirms that:
- mould is the British spelling referring both meanings.
- mold is the american spelling referring to both meanings.
In my quest to prove them wrong, I was surprised at how wrong I was… until I discovered a few people on the internet who said the same thing:
- https://english.stackexchange.com/a/169920
- https://english.stackexchange.com/a/172089
- https://english.stackexchange.com/a/139605
- https://old.reddit.com/r/confidentlyincorrect/comments/18sx2l0/mold_vs_mould_doubled_down/kfaa6nj/
- https://old.reddit.com/r/confidentlyincorrect/comments/18sx2l0/mold_vs_mould_doubled_down/kfcio12/
- https://old.reddit.com/r/confidentlyincorrect/comments/18sx2l0/mold_vs_mould_doubled_down/kfet3jz/
I’m not looking for what’s correct or incorrect anymore, I just find it very fascinating that there are some people who use the words similarly to me, but the vast majority of others who use it in a different way.
So: what’s the difference between mould and mold according to you?
Steve Mould obviously
I thought the same for the longest time. I blame playing tons of runescape as a kid.
I am an American so mold spelling is definitely what I ran into when referring to the fungus. Runescape is British English, so you used moulds all the time in crafting.
As someone who regularly uses both British and American English both at work and in my personal life, I sometimes mix them unintentionally.
I almost always use the same spelling for either word and use context to make sure it is always clear which mold I am talking about.
I do think there is value in distinguishing the words with different spelling, but without getting everyone to agree on which spelling would mean what, I think this won’t be very productive.
Moulding is the trim around walls and whatnot. Molding is when something is in the process of having mold growing on it.
Wouldn’t that be mouldering?
Maybe. I honestly don’t know. Not really my field of expertise.
Moldering: “to crumble into dust, to rot”
All the definitions of molding I can find, are about shaping something.
“mould” should be pronounced the same as would or could
I use what you do
American here, I’ve never used “mould” for any definition, personally- always “mold”
I always thought mould was the fungus and to mold was to manipulate a material
I’m Canadian, and we use a mix of British and American spellings, mostly depending on how we feel at the time of writing.
This is how I use it. So one could mold mould if they were so inclined.
I do this too, to keep them separate in my head. I get that they’re interchangeable.
I say mould because I’m English and that’s just how it’s spelled here (we also pronounce it with a U, pronouncing it without the U as mold would be…strange).
Not an overly exciting response I know, but there you go :P
How do you pronounce the U? Do you pronounce mould like should, would, or could? Is your pronunciation of mould then closer to mud than old with an M in front?
It’s pronounced ‘moeoueieueld’. You really need to emphasise the ‘a’ sound to get it right.
I bit my tongue, thanks
Now I’m realizing, I don’t pronounce the L in those words… Maybe they pronounce it liked mulled?
In honesty (my last comment was clearly not legit), you likely do pronounce the ‘L’; most accents will include this in my experience.
Does the tip of your tongue touch the roof of your mouth just on or behind the ridge before your front teeth? If you release your tongue before pronouncing the ‘D’ is there a release of air? If you do position your tongue here and there is no release of air before pronouncing the ‘D’ (which does release air), then you are pronouncing the ‘L’.
I could see some accents not pronouncing the L. It may colour the vowel, but not be a distinct sound on its own.
You have my vote for your interpretation, that had always been my understanding too.
Which oune wold yo souggest?
I suggest using two different spellings:Mold is the fungus. To mould is to shape.Nvm I’m an idiot. Lol
i see mold i use clorox
I use “mold” for the fungus and the tool, “mould” for composted soil.
There’s a fair number of people who insist that “geek” and “nerd” mean two different, specific things. I think this is the same phenomenon, that people seek nuance where there isn’t because it makes the language seem more interesting or something.
The words have very different origins. While I think they converged for a time, they started out different.
On a related tangent, because I see that this is mostly discussed to death, I dont get why Americans decided to merge other unrelated words.
For example, being exhausted and the rubber circle that cars and bikes use to roll smoothly are the same word in American English whereas we (UK) use different spellings.
Tire - Being exhausted
Tyre - Round rubber wheel thing
Like many of the differences, I suspect that one came out of the attempts as English Spelling Reform, which took greater hold in the US. Ultimately, the process hasn’t succeeded, but it has excised some of inconsistencies from the English. Though, it has also led to some confusion, as in the tire/tyre case.
