General rules:
Exceptions may be made at the discretion of the mods.
On the one hand, a sign like this definitely did have enough room for the full spelling of "through". There seems to be no reason to abbreviate it.
On the other hand, isn't drive-thru just, like, its own noun now? Part of me thinks this was always spelled correctly.
It seems like shorthand for signs that has been used enough that it's basically normal now, like "lite" instead light, or "donut" instead of doughnut.
Right, the distinction I'm making is this isn't just "normalized" but actually the correct spelling. As in, if a newspaper editor saw it written as "drive-through" they would be obliged to correct it.
Suppose both aight?
A drive-through or drive-thru (a sensational spelling of the word through), is a type of take-out service provided by a business that allows customers to purchase products without leaving their cars.
Sensational spelling is the deliberate spelling of a word in a non-standard way for special effect.
I still call it an air-port.
All my homies call them aerodromes.
My kid calls it a plane station and frankly it’s growing on me
I'm gonna take a ride in a aero
“I would like to send this letter to the Prussian Consulate in Siam by aeromail. Am I too late for the 4.30 autogyro?”
The correct way would be "drive-through."
"Drive-thru" is purposely spelled wrong to attract attention. The same as "Krispy Kreme" or "Dunkin' Donuts." It's only "correct" in that it has become ubiquitous through usage.
It's only "correct" in that it has become ubiquitous through usage.
What you are describing is called "language"
"You" wasn't always allowed to be singular. Colour vs color. Doughnut can be donut. Etc. Languages evolve over time, and "drive-thru" is in plenty of dictionaries.
Ohh I thought donut was the American spelling of doughnut.
It is.
I wonder what the Venn diagram of prescriptivists and graffiti artists is
Yes.
Don't get me started on "donut" instead of "doughnut".
Wy do yu insist so strongly on writing thre mor letters that do nothing to chang the pronunciaton of the word? Ar yu French?
If ther's on thing I hat, it's words ending with silent e's. And whil we'r at it, we ned to get rid of doubl e's as well.
I don't mind silent e's, they do actually change the way words are pronounced at least.
Magic Es they taught them to me as. Come to think of it as an adult a magic e could mean something entirely different...
If they are silent, they don't chang the pronunciaton, becaus if they do they are not silent.
Dubl e's mak sens thou. Ther's a diffrenc between feed and fed, or between need and Ned. The dublin maks the E longer.
For a moment, I thought, this was a misprint and they had to officially get out a spray can to complete the word...
there are two "l"'s in cancelled, i will die on this hill.../s
Merica gave England that other L.
language, though imprecise... brings a methemetician's paradise
I'm in the same boat when it comes to gasses and busses.
If you want to be more accurate it is a Drive Next to, unless you drive through the building to get your food.
Oil change places where you don't get out of your car are drive through, everywhere else is a drive next to.
Car washes too!
I would go with "Drive Around", over drive next to, but I pedantically agree.
The etymology follows the drive-in which is basically a big parking lot you drive in to, do your ordering/eating/movie watching in your car, and then you drive out. And when you don't stop in the middle of a drive in, but instead you continue through it, in your car, it became a drive through.
The pedantic term is a drive-up, btw.
Also: Aluminium.
Aluminum came before aluminium.
Alumium came before that!
...shoulda just left it at that.
Drive-thru
Hi-way
Tonite
Rite
These spellings are extremely pervasive at my workplace and they drive me nuts. Granted, many people there are non-native English speakers. But that just means the people teaching them English are doing it wrong.
Loved the show Dress to Kill by Eddie Izzard. He thought thru was much better than through coming to the conclusion that through should be pronounced like thruff.
You say erbs, and we say herbs. Because there's a fucking h in it.
Americans don't like "ou" in their words.
So it is thereby, by law, and without question, "Drive throgh".
Just a quick reminder that dictionaries are descriptive, they document existing language use rather than set down rules.
If enough people break an existing rule often enough, it makes it into dictionaries. Just ask anyone who doesn't think that "ironic" should mean "coincidental".