Americans use both fall and autumn.

Canadians use fall.

and fall is one of the few 'Americanisms' (originally Elizabethan English) words Fowler recommended should be re-introduced to BE.
I agree entirely.

I don' t know if it' s regional, but Canadians also use Autumn.

You could use google to find out the usage in New Zealand etc. (domain .co.nz)

Both - mainly fall, though I think.
Fall weather
Autumn leaves
This fall, we're going to ....

We pick and choose between BE and AE, although the stronger tendency is definitely towards AE, especially with the younger generations.

It's definitely Autumn in Australia.

Stimme swill zu, "autumn" in Australien, allerdings wird "fall" verstanden.

Okay, fall would be understood by an Aussie, but the speaker would immediately fall under suspicion of being American.

In New Zealand we say 'autumn'. Most people would understand 'fall' in context, due to American songs, TV etc., but it's not used.
I knew a girl from Wellington who had been telling all of her friends in France that there were no seasons in NZ, but we definitely have all four of them in the South Island.

As swill says, it definitely is Autumn in Australia ... not many leaves left on the (deciduous) trees now, the days are getting shorter and the nights chillier. Most of you have a whole summer to look forward to now I suppose (*sigh*)

Well, rob_oz, if you move a little to the north or Brisbane, you might find some different weather. I believe they're just starting the season called "the dry" there. I may be wrong.

@rob_oz: after seven months of winter here (in Austria), don't you think we deserve our turn at a little glimpse of sunshine? A warm ray to thaw those "grantige Wiener" into the famed "goldne Weaner Herzen"? ;-)
And look on the bright side - if there are no leaves on the trees, you have more light! :-)

The distinct separation in leo: fall (Amer.); autumn (brit.) is quite misleading. Americans may *mostly* use fall, especially in speech, but autumn is commonly used as well, especially in more formal writing. I would guess that most "leo" users are interested in the latter.

Limerick example from HS Freshman English, 1965-66:

There once was a fellow named Hall
Who fell in the Spring in the Fall.
'Twould have been a sad Thing
If he'd died in the Spring,
But he didn't; he died in the Fall.

[18th C. capitalization added]

Hello, Mr. Becker!

I feel compelled to improve on the meter in the limerick:

There once was a fellow named Hall
Who fell in the Spring in the Fall.
'Twould be a sad Thing
To die in the Spring,
But he didn't; he died in the Fall.

(...where didn't is pronounced "dint", of course.)

It is to be hoped that the Merits of no. 17 be duly unacknowleged, although for Consistency in Beginning each Line with an Iamb, one could consider this Rendering of Lines four and five;

To die in the Spring--
He didn't; he died in the Fall.

or, alternatively,

To die in the Spring;
Thank Heavens, he died in the Fall.


Such being as it may, this Writer hastens to the Defence of Mr. Becker's Honor with the following Citation:


Various writers [sic] have proposed special restrictions [sic ](such as requiring [sic] just one weak beat [sic]at the start [sic]of lines [sic] one and two, or requiring [sic] matching [sic] the initial number [sic] of weak beats [sic] over certain lines [sic]), but all such restrictions [sic] fail the empirical test [sic] of describing [sic]what good anthologies [sic] and recognized masters [sic] have produced. [Italics added.]

http://www.sfu.ca/~finley/discussion.html

Best regards,

Martin:

I had obviously overlooked the contrastive accent on the second syllable of the final line of your revision!

The first two lines of No. 18 I retract with sincere apologies, and in regards to my revisions defer to the wit of your own!

Maybe, as RES-can suggested, it's more of a spur of the moment thing.

I wanted to post this as a new query, but it seems to fit here:

Is fall and autumn maybe used differently based on application, rather than region?

In Canada, both are used regularly.

Are fall and autumn used differently even within the US and Canada? Yes, in some other previous thread I think I mentioned that fall is more everyday, prosaic, and autumn is more literary, poetic.

Practical things always use fall: fall semester, fall break, planning for the fall, fall sales figures, fall clothing, when does school start in the fall, etc.

We look forward to cool fall weather/temperatures, but as RES-can said, it's always autumn leaves, as in the old song, not fall leaves. Maybe that's to prevent visual confusion with the verb 'to fall,' as in 'Leaves fall in the fall.'

The figurative sense is always autumn: the autumn of one's life, an autumnal chill, etc.

LEO elaboriert in der Verwendung von 'autumn': Dictionary: *autumn* . . .

Für 'fall' = Herbst' gibt es nur einen Eintrag - Verbesserungsfähig (i.S.v. #21) ? . . .

Umgekehrt ergibt 'Herbst' sowohl als auch: Dictionary: Herbst . . .

Anmerkung: Für mich selber interpretiere ich den Begriff 'fall' mit 'Neige' (des Jahres):

Dictionary: Neige . . .

While autumn isn’t an unusual word, marked as BE in the way nappies or windscreen are, I (AE) rarely use it in speech. In fact, I question whether I would ever say autumn. For me the normal word is fall, though of course I can use autumn in writing, especially for variation, to avoid writing something like, “What I love best about fall are the fall colors.”

I disagree that autumn leaves is a fixed phrase and somehow more correct than fall leaves, though one does get a lot more hits for “autumn leaves,” partially because of the song and movie titles. Nevertheless, there are 615,000 sites that give hits for “fall leaves”. Limiting the search to sites ending in .us shows that both “autumn leaves” and “fall leaves” are both used.

“fall leaves” on .us sites 12,200
“autumn leaves” on .us sites 16,600

Yes, now that you mention it ... Sorry.

And fall colors, yes, definitely ...

Is "fall" still used for autumn in any regions of the U.K.? I've never personally come across it here. And what about Irish English?

"Autumn colors" at the university of Wisconsin? Throughout the article both "fall" and "autumn" are used. Would this be considered "wrong" in Germany?

http://scifun.chem.wisc.edu/chemweek/fallcolr...

Humpty Dumpty's summer was a bit of a bummer,
and Humpty's winter was no good at all.
Even his spring didn't go with a zing,
but Humpty Dumpty had a great fall.

'Fall' also tends to be used with 'the', whereas 'autumn' can do without the article preceding it.

Regarding application/context: Yes, Americans use both words, but sometimes in different contexts. Examples: "Her birthday is in the fall" or "We're planning a vacation in the fall" sound right to me. I wouldn't use autumn in these sentences. "Autumn" sounds more poetic and might more often be applied in references to beauty and nature or in contexts in which 'fall' might be otherwise ambiguous. "I had the fall of my life" -- What a trip! Down the stairs or in October?

Escoville, I see we're thinking along the same lines....

@26

I wouldn't consider it wrong to use "fall" and "autumn" in the same article. It's not likely to happen in German articles, tough, because there is no other common word for "Herbst" - at least I can't think of any right now.

If I am raking leaves, it is fall.
If I am taking a drive to see the colorful foliage, it is autumn.

"Autumn in New York" is a jazz standard, sung by Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald amongs others - that's always led me to believe that maybe autumn was used more by New Yorkers than other Americans? But that also tends to confirm the "more literary, poetic" use...

#31: If I am raking leaves, it is fall.
If I am taking a drive to see the colorful foliage, it is autumn.

"New England in the fall"? Or "New England in the autumn"?

Also AE: "She's an autumn."

#34: "She's an autumn"

Is that BE, though? I've never come across it before. What does it mean?

I don't know what it actually means, but it has something to do with clothes and makeup :-)

Probably also BE, I don't know. Ladies?

In the 1980s (?) there was a bestselling book that categorized women into four different types, each with a recommended palette of colors that are the most flattering to its range of skin and hair tones. Autumn was the people who look good in warm earth tones, including browns, golds, and oranges, like the colors of fall leaves.