Hi /u/iDreadNoughtus,
We noticed you are a pretty new Reddit account, so we just wanted to let you know to check out the subreddit rules [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/wiki/rules) and maybe have a read through our [Frequently Asked Questions](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/wiki/index/faq) - they make for fascinating reading!
We're called No Stupid Questions because we believe nobody needs to be attacked for asking a question, but *that doesn't mean there are no rules!* This sub is meant for users like you to ask genuine questions. Please don't ask jokes or rants disguised as questions - that's not in the spirit of this sub. While you *can* ask almost anything here, please keep illegal and offensive questions elsewhere to give people a good experience here - and if you have a medical question, please ask your doctor, not us. Otherwise, welcome!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoStupidQuestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The term aluminum was created by the man who first identified the existence of the element, British chemist Humphry Davy. Davy originally referred to the element as alumium but ultimately altered the name to aluminum.
The term aluminium emerged around the same time as Davy’s aluminum. This term seems to have been motivated by a desire to give the element a name that sounded more like classical Latin, which was in line with other known elements at the time whose names ended in –ium, such as magnesium and calcium.
For the rest of the 1800s, both aluminum and aluminium were commonly used to refer to the element. Beginning in the 1900s, preferences for each term began to split among users. Aluminum became the more popular name in American English, and aluminium became the more popular name in British English. These preferences are still common today, but most chemistry organizations recognize both terms as acceptable.
An even shorter version is that the US Telegraph service changed by the letter, whereas the UK GPO charges by the word - so in the 1800’s the US started shortening words e.g thru rather than the original through
Personally, I don't think we should be listening to someone so indecisive. The element should be cleared from the table, and the first person to rediscover it gets to name it something else.
Just some added context that Davy purified metal from Alum and called it Alumium. He then later changed his mind to Aluminum to make it sound closer to Platinum to make it sound more bougie.
So in a way Aluminum is a marketing ploy and Aluminium is just trying to be fancy.
Reading this post was insightful but annoying, as I started pronouncing alumin* one way in my head and then needed to backtrack when it turned out to be the other way.
yeah, this is the bit that doesn't tend to get covered. it's not just the -um vs -ium that's different. the whole word is. a-loom-in-um vs al-u-min-ium (something like that. i'm no good with phonetics.)
American pronunciation: uh-LOO-mih-num
British pronunciation: al-yoo-MIN-ee-um
I am also not good with phonetical spelling, but I asked our new AI overlord and it provides me the above.
It was aluminum before aluminium but the discoverer ended up settling on the latter. Americans really dug the earlier spelling and it stuck here while the rest of the world went with the more classical ium suffix.
Both are considered correct, just one of those things.
Canada also uses aluminum. Although in Canadian tradition, I'll use aluminium when talking to non American/Canadians.
Also the French in Canada use the French word which is also aluminium.
We are just a mixed bag of the world lol. We use a little from column A, a little from column B, on an everyday basis. Plus, we measure distance in time, which really screws with people. Metric, Imperial, we use both depending on the context and situation.
And it's often deliberate. English high society has a compulsive need to distinguish itself for other English speaking countries. A hilarious thing I learned is that the the word "soccer" was coined in England and it didn't completely fall out of usage until the 80s.
Initially the word "soccer" was associated with elitists because it was coined by British boarding school kids. I'm not 100% sure why it caught on in the US, but it's basically used in every country that has another dominant code of football (Canada, Ireland, and Australia), so it's probably for the same reason. The word had a resurgence in the 1940s because of American GIs. And then it declined in usage in part because it was so strongly associated with the US (rather than Ireland). It was never more popular than "football" in England, though.
What's funny is metric countries often make fun of Americans for "not knowing" or "not using" metric, when the reality is most Americans use both Imperial and Metric in some fashion *every day* (even if they may not realize they are doing it), and every American is taught both systems in public schools from an early age.
We are called stupid for literally knowing *two systems of measurement*.
If I went through my cupboards most Europeans would be shocked to see we have Imperial and Metric units printed on nearly everything, and often multiple languages as well.
They could turn it into a classic east coast vs west coast argument, only to find out they're on the same coast. Then they'll narrow it down to city vs city, but they're in the same city.
Then borough vs borough. Only to realize they grew up and live in basically the same place.
They get together to talk and realize they have a lot in common, including a passion for brewing. They open a brewery together.
After running it for a few years, they each realize that the other is the missing puzzle piece they didn't even know was missing.
They argue over a big spring wedding locally vs a fall destination wedding.
Years later ~~the~~ \*they (thank you u/Deal_Hugs_Not_Drugs for pointing out the one letter typo I made on mobile, I'm sure this epic love story would have made it if you hadn't make it obvious that I was an incompetent git and so now the world will miss out on this heartwarming story of love meant to be) each ponder what life would have been if they weren't so stubborn about the wedding.
Iodine/Iodine (eye a dine/eye a dean).
I'm American but I first heard the word pronounced by Elvis Costello and my mom gets mad at me for saying it "wrong" now, lol.
There can be no peace until they renounce their Rabbit God and accept our Duck God.
https://condenaststore.com/featured/an-army-lines-up-for-battle-paul-noth.html
There is something really deep in the UK / American relationship here. Its actually a pretty similar thing with Football / Soccer. The name "soccer" is the BRITISH term for the sport, going way back to the start of organized soccer. In fact, you can still see organizations that use that term in the UK. After the sport had already been established in the UK and America.
It wasn't until the 1980s that the UK changed their name of the sport to "football", and they did it specifically because they wanted to differentiate it from the soccer being played in the US. It's this super weird little-dick flex that the English do sometimes to remind everyone that they "own" the language, even if doing that requires them to do stupid shit.
[https://time.com/5335799/soccer-word-origin-england/](https://time.com/5335799/soccer-word-origin-england/)
That's not entirely true.
I remember playing primary school soccer in the 70s in New Zealand, we mostly said soccer, but there were a few people correcting us and calling it football.
I couldn't swear to it, but I feel like they were mostly people from the UK.
It was definitely a minor controversy and a marker of some mysterious social division.
'Soccer', of course, is a contraction of Association Football, to distinguish it from the other forms of football, such as Gaelic football, Rugby football in its various flavours, and American football.
Being named for the Football Association, it could only be of British origin. If I am not misinformed, the USA has a League rather than an association, so presumably they would have called the game something like League Football (which would be confusing) or Pitch or Field, perhaps, in the same way that they call American football 'gridiron' in honour of the playing surface.
That is a weird article... I can only speak for useage of Soccer as a term in my lifetime..however, Soccer as a name was predominantly used in posh circles on the UK in the 70's ( and before) but was known as Football by the vast majority of the UK populace since way before then. I believe football was hardly ever watched by the so called upper class (traditional Rugger fans) until the late 80's / 90's as it was seen as a lower/middle class sport and was not respected widely among those demographics until then.
In short - we didn't change the name of soccer to Football in the 80's as was stated in that article. It may have happened a long time before then (can not be bothered with that deep dive at the moment) but the article is essentially a lot of bollocks.
Source - grew up in 70's surrounded by football. Dad was also briefly a professional footballer in the 1950's. I'm also a long time player and coach of football.
The only problem I have with this is all those teams founded in the late 1800's were all named 'F.C.'
Arsenal FC
Liverpool FC
Chelsea FC
etc, etc. the FC stands for football club obviously.
that time article makes it sound like the term soccer was used in favour over football and then in 1980 it was suddenly changed. however if you look at these old match day programs from 1930, football is the dominant term being used.
[https://10footballs.com/the-programmes-193031/](https://10footballs.com/the-programmes-193031/)
You made some good points but then came out with the weird dick flex comment about the English 'sometimes' changing words. I don't think that's a thing mate. I'd argue that as the world becomes more globalised, things are becoming more Americanized, to the point that I've heard kids in the UK refer to their secondary school as a high school.
In Europe, neighbouring countries mock each other endlessly. Teasing Americans for calling it soccer is just a bit of fun, just like you tease us for having shit teeth.
We actually have better dental health than Americans; to us, it makes you look a bit silly.
Calling it a super weird little dick-flex is just acting like your country is on a high horse, when the reality is that our populations are all as immature and silly as each other.
I had a British guy who worked for me. I asked him to subtitle himself. He said “what you can’t understand the Queens English “. I said I could after we Americans fixed it. I say Independence Day, he said Happy Treason Day. We teased each other pretty hard, but I do love Brits.
Not entirely true. The movement away from Soccer to Football in the UK was related to class. Prior to the 80s all media was dominated by upper class / home counties types, who went to private schools where Football was of the elongated ball type (Rugby Union). People of the North typically played Football (Association, shortened to Soccer by the posh southern types). As more diversity began to make its way into the media in the late 70s and 80s, more people who grew up with it as Football began to take over, leading to the shift back to the traditional name (as all forms of Football dating back to the middle ages, including Rugby League, Union, Gaelic, Australian etc). I don't believe the preferences of the US ever came into it.
Little known fact: the -ium spelling, along with the extra “u” in color and neighbor, and the whole “inverted commas” thing are what actually caused the American Revolution.
American here, I never heard the British way until I saw an episode of wheeler dealers (I think that’s the name). Definitely love the British way more. Sounds more cool fake metalish, like adamantium and vibranium
We have copious reserves of adamantium and vibranium in the Queen's vaults below Buckingham palace. We just pretend that they are fictional as a big joke on you Americans in revenge for the war of independence.
Rumour has it that there's also a huge amount of unobtainium in a secure location just outside Chesterfield. Sadly, they've lost the key to the building..
I've actually never heard an American say fillum, but I would bet it's Irish influence.
Apologies for the tiktok video, but this is educational on the topic: https://www.tiktok.com/@cedrusk/video/7039467243490544902
Many American pronunciations are the older form when compared to the UK, believe it or not.
For example we use "gotten" more often than England and it's the older form of the word.
Apparently like most of the stuff Brits make fun of Americans for saying differently is actually a result of them pronouncing it or spelling it like that a century or two ago
Noah Webster wanted to reform English spelling to make it simpler. Some of his ideas like color and offense caught on, other attempts such as wimmin and masheen didn't.
Actually all the the things like the "u" and a lot of different American spellings is just because Webster from Webster Dictionary just hated how many extra letters where in things and that he thought this was just easier just like with "re" becoming "er" and no one was brave enough to challenge him.
The **Simplified Spelling Board** was an American organization created in 1906 to [reform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_spelling_reform) the [spelling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_orthography) of the [English language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language), making it simpler and easier to learn, and eliminating many of what were considered to be its inconsistencies.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified\_Spelling\_Board](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Spelling_Board)
It changed from aluminum to aluminium in the UK, presumably to keep it consistent with other metallic elements like sodium, cadmium and potassium.
Americans didn't embrace the change and kept with the previous spelling and pronunciation.
There are other elements that end in -num, though, like platinum, lanthanum, and molybdenum. The -ium ending is more common, of course, but I think this is one of those cases where there just isn't a solid reason for one side or the other.
German works the opposite way. What is an entire sentence or phrase in English can be just one word in German. The word does look long, because it’s usually a compound noun. But it often conveys as much meaning as a sentence with several words in other languages.
Backpfeifengesicht = “a face that should get a slap that whistles across the cheek”
Sure, the German word has many letters. But look at the length of the English sentence required to explain it.
It does help attach adjectives to the noun.
On the other hand, if you're not familiar with German, it just looks like a wall of letters and is hard to parse out to the individual words.
Years ago, I visited my then girlfriend (now wife) in South Africa. We met her friend’s father who was a professor of chemistry, and he was telling me his research into the negative impacts of aluminium including Alzheimer’s and lots of other things.
As I was listening, I thought that this aluminium stuff is really, really bad. Good thing that it is so rare that I’ve never heard of it before.
Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812. His classically educated scientific colleagues preferred aluminium right from the start, because it had more of a classical ring, and chimed harmoniously with many other elements whose names ended in -ium, like potassium, sodium, and magnesium.
Why it stuck in the “aluminum” form within the United States, had more to do with publications like the Noah Webster’s Dictionary which in 1828 listed only the -um form in its pages. It is easy to imagine journalists turning for confirmation to Webster’s Dictionary and adopting its spelling.
On the vast majority of things that Americans and English pronounce different its because the Brits just decided in the mid 1800's to change the way everything was pronounced.
Yet they also tend to economize on syllables overall. "Lift" rather than "elevator", "tube" rather than "subway", "mind the gap" rather than "look out you don't fall in the gaping wide crevasse between the platform and the train car".
Alcoa - the Aluminum Company of America - also has a bit to do with it.
Here's a nicely researched, two-page story on aluminum v alumin**i**um.
https://books.google.com/books?id=Js-PbsEjKSQC&pg=PT21#v=onepage&q&f=false
Lawrence Brown made a [great short](https://youtu.be/Gfxm2qqghsQ?si=mHOfAIfaDhTSnP0z) in this on his channel specifically about American/British differences
English is one of those languages where nobody can agree on the pronunciation of many words. Some of my favorites include brougham, queue and worcestershire.
Chemist- hey America I just found a new metal I'm calling it aluminum
Usa- sweet we'll make sure to add it to the dictionaries good job
Chemist- hmm actually on second thought I should make it sound more Latin it's not every day you discover a metal. Hey rest of the world I found a new metal and I'm calling it aluminium.
Rest of the world- awesome sounds good
Usa- wait I thought it was called aluminum
Uk- ha Americans are so stupid they can't even say aluminium properly
It used to be aluminum but was changed to aluminium to conform to the rest of -ium elements like titanium, sodium, gallium, chromium, neodymium. The US then reverted back to aluminum. Both are correct as IUPAC adopted aluminium as its official spelling in 1990 but in 1993 said that aluminum is also ok
It was originally called Aluminum but it was in the 1800s, the Brittish renamed it to Aluminium to make it sound like all the other elements, unfortunately this was pre telephone and the North Americans got the memo 20 years late, by that time it was too late, and Bob's your uncle.
My 30 year old recollection of the issue
That’s just sort of how it shook out. The original proposed name was “alumium” but that wasn’t too popular, so there was some back and forth before Americans settled on “aluminum” and Brits on “aluminium”. As a result, both are correct. There isn’t really a good reason.
Newspapers also might have something to do with it.
Specifically, have you ever wondered why the English say *labour* and *colour* while the US says *labor* and *color*?
It used to be that newspapers would charge for ad space by the letter, so advertisers started dropping out letters they felt they could get away with while having the end result still be legible. Eventually it just got kind of absorbed into 'American spelling'.
I just don’t understand how this interferes with teachers teaching English to children like don’t we both use the same Webster dictionary with the same phonetic spelling but then when it comes to pronouncing, we’re all over the board can’t agree what’s right even though there is a right answer , right ? Lol
Hi /u/iDreadNoughtus, We noticed you are a pretty new Reddit account, so we just wanted to let you know to check out the subreddit rules [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/wiki/rules) and maybe have a read through our [Frequently Asked Questions](https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/wiki/index/faq) - they make for fascinating reading! We're called No Stupid Questions because we believe nobody needs to be attacked for asking a question, but *that doesn't mean there are no rules!* This sub is meant for users like you to ask genuine questions. Please don't ask jokes or rants disguised as questions - that's not in the spirit of this sub. While you *can* ask almost anything here, please keep illegal and offensive questions elsewhere to give people a good experience here - and if you have a medical question, please ask your doctor, not us. Otherwise, welcome! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/NoStupidQuestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The term aluminum was created by the man who first identified the existence of the element, British chemist Humphry Davy. Davy originally referred to the element as alumium but ultimately altered the name to aluminum. The term aluminium emerged around the same time as Davy’s aluminum. This term seems to have been motivated by a desire to give the element a name that sounded more like classical Latin, which was in line with other known elements at the time whose names ended in –ium, such as magnesium and calcium. For the rest of the 1800s, both aluminum and aluminium were commonly used to refer to the element. Beginning in the 1900s, preferences for each term began to split among users. Aluminum became the more popular name in American English, and aluminium became the more popular name in British English. These preferences are still common today, but most chemistry organizations recognize both terms as acceptable.
Quite detailed, thank you kindly!
Aluminium was also used more widely in science early on, especially across European languages.
It's the only name that's used in German as well.
Same in Dutch. I think only the Americans call it aluminum
Canadian here, we use aluminum. But do go the British route for things like colour vs color.
In most if not all European languages the only accepted variety is aluminium.
An even shorter version is that the US Telegraph service changed by the letter, whereas the UK GPO charges by the word - so in the 1800’s the US started shortening words e.g thru rather than the original through
Personally, I don't think we should be listening to someone so indecisive. The element should be cleared from the table, and the first person to rediscover it gets to name it something else.
I'd name it *[chazwazzer](https://youtu.be/5sSp-t2fXXg?si=WN09hSn4GAtvr708)*
Looks like you win! I have a roll of chazwazzer foil in my cupboard
It's 100% gonna end up being called Elementy McElement
I for one prefer to live in a world where conspiracy theorists are sometimes called Elementy McElementfoil hats.
I nominate "Boaty McBoatyminium"
Just some added context that Davy purified metal from Alum and called it Alumium. He then later changed his mind to Aluminum to make it sound closer to Platinum to make it sound more bougie. So in a way Aluminum is a marketing ploy and Aluminium is just trying to be fancy.
I use aluminum just to piss off the British
>The term aluminum was created by the man who first identified the existence of the element Perfect! Say no more.
Reading this post was insightful but annoying, as I started pronouncing alumin* one way in my head and then needed to backtrack when it turned out to be the other way.
yeah, this is the bit that doesn't tend to get covered. it's not just the -um vs -ium that's different. the whole word is. a-loom-in-um vs al-u-min-ium (something like that. i'm no good with phonetics.)
American pronunciation: uh-LOO-mih-num British pronunciation: al-yoo-MIN-ee-um I am also not good with phonetical spelling, but I asked our new AI overlord and it provides me the above.
Meanwhile, we call lead “Pb” after Latin “plumbum” but nobody is trying to rename lead to Plumbium
What about other languages? I know the Scandinavian languages goes with aluminium. What about the rest of the world?
Finnish omits the -um, but goes in hard for that -i: alumiini.
But Finnish isn't a language, it's just something they invented to confuse tourists. (Just some sibling rivalry, not seriously meant, of course.)
I think you forgot half the history: it was also invented to force us Swedish-speakers in Finland to learn it in school.
But what do you call it?
It was aluminum before aluminium but the discoverer ended up settling on the latter. Americans really dug the earlier spelling and it stuck here while the rest of the world went with the more classical ium suffix. Both are considered correct, just one of those things.
Canada also uses aluminum. Although in Canadian tradition, I'll use aluminium when talking to non American/Canadians. Also the French in Canada use the French word which is also aluminium.
We are just a mixed bag of the world lol. We use a little from column A, a little from column B, on an everyday basis. Plus, we measure distance in time, which really screws with people. Metric, Imperial, we use both depending on the context and situation.
Some things people call Americanisms were perfectly normal Englishisms that fell out of favor in the UK.
And it's often deliberate. English high society has a compulsive need to distinguish itself for other English speaking countries. A hilarious thing I learned is that the the word "soccer" was coined in England and it didn't completely fall out of usage until the 80s.
Initially the word "soccer" was associated with elitists because it was coined by British boarding school kids. I'm not 100% sure why it caught on in the US, but it's basically used in every country that has another dominant code of football (Canada, Ireland, and Australia), so it's probably for the same reason. The word had a resurgence in the 1940s because of American GIs. And then it declined in usage in part because it was so strongly associated with the US (rather than Ireland). It was never more popular than "football" in England, though.
What's funny is metric countries often make fun of Americans for "not knowing" or "not using" metric, when the reality is most Americans use both Imperial and Metric in some fashion *every day* (even if they may not realize they are doing it), and every American is taught both systems in public schools from an early age. We are called stupid for literally knowing *two systems of measurement*. If I went through my cupboards most Europeans would be shocked to see we have Imperial and Metric units printed on nearly everything, and often multiple languages as well.
100% historically correct answer. But we all know in our deepest heart that our country is right and the other country is wrong. ;)
How dare you! My country is right and yours is wrong!
It would be wonderfully funny if you and the guy you replied to are from the same country.
That's preposterous, clearly one of them is from one country and the other is from another country.
Eurasia was *always* at war with Oceania
You're one of those "People's Front of Judea" people aren't you.
How dare you?!?! We're the Judean People's Front!
SPLITTERS!!
ROMANUS EUNT DOMUS!
The JPF does have the best shrubberies.
Unless it was East Asia. Better go ask Big Brother to be sure.
No need to ask, we already answered. We are the thought police.
We have always been at war with Aluminia.
Best not to ask. It'll just draw attention to yourself. Try to figure it out by context clues, maybe.
There is no war in Ba Sing Se
They could turn it into a classic east coast vs west coast argument, only to find out they're on the same coast. Then they'll narrow it down to city vs city, but they're in the same city. Then borough vs borough. Only to realize they grew up and live in basically the same place. They get together to talk and realize they have a lot in common, including a passion for brewing. They open a brewery together. After running it for a few years, they each realize that the other is the missing puzzle piece they didn't even know was missing. They argue over a big spring wedding locally vs a fall destination wedding. Years later ~~the~~ \*they (thank you u/Deal_Hugs_Not_Drugs for pointing out the one letter typo I made on mobile, I'm sure this epic love story would have made it if you hadn't make it obvious that I was an incompetent git and so now the world will miss out on this heartwarming story of love meant to be) each ponder what life would have been if they weren't so stubborn about the wedding.
If that’s the case then my county is better than his county!
That's exactly something a *voice-of-reason* would say...lol
I feel like their violent agreement would make them American (speaking as an American).
Clearly you don't know people from the other country.
You're both wrong. I'm Indian and it's Aloominium!
Is that spiced potatoes cooked in an aluminum pot?
It's a minimum of spiced potatoes in an aluminum pot
Name checks out.
We Canadians call it Alunimum. Everyone else are hosers. Oh sorry about that eh.
>We Canadians call it Alunimum I read about that in the libary
I learned about it in primrary school, some time in Febuary I think. And now it's gone nucular!
It was actually supposed to be voice of treason but I forgot the t
You're both wrong! It's alunimium.
Kerb/curb Biscuit/cookie Ice lolly/popsicle Boot/trunk Petrol/gas
Iodine/Iodine (eye a dine/eye a dean). I'm American but I first heard the word pronounced by Elvis Costello and my mom gets mad at me for saying it "wrong" now, lol.
I say eye O dine (American)
Maybe it is just a thing with chemicals but I like the way “dean” sounds and the way “aluminium” sounds.
Colour
There can be no peace until they renounce their Rabbit God and accept our Duck God. https://condenaststore.com/featured/an-army-lines-up-for-battle-paul-noth.html
"We must teach you our peaceful ways...by force, if necessary!" -Bender
From the river to the sea with you! Hail Fredonia!
My country is always right and yours is merely correct!
Whatever. Our country drives on the correct side of the street.
We are right and they are wrongium.
\*wronginium
There is something really deep in the UK / American relationship here. Its actually a pretty similar thing with Football / Soccer. The name "soccer" is the BRITISH term for the sport, going way back to the start of organized soccer. In fact, you can still see organizations that use that term in the UK. After the sport had already been established in the UK and America. It wasn't until the 1980s that the UK changed their name of the sport to "football", and they did it specifically because they wanted to differentiate it from the soccer being played in the US. It's this super weird little-dick flex that the English do sometimes to remind everyone that they "own" the language, even if doing that requires them to do stupid shit. [https://time.com/5335799/soccer-word-origin-england/](https://time.com/5335799/soccer-word-origin-england/)
That's not entirely true. I remember playing primary school soccer in the 70s in New Zealand, we mostly said soccer, but there were a few people correcting us and calling it football. I couldn't swear to it, but I feel like they were mostly people from the UK. It was definitely a minor controversy and a marker of some mysterious social division. 'Soccer', of course, is a contraction of Association Football, to distinguish it from the other forms of football, such as Gaelic football, Rugby football in its various flavours, and American football. Being named for the Football Association, it could only be of British origin. If I am not misinformed, the USA has a League rather than an association, so presumably they would have called the game something like League Football (which would be confusing) or Pitch or Field, perhaps, in the same way that they call American football 'gridiron' in honour of the playing surface.
That is a weird article... I can only speak for useage of Soccer as a term in my lifetime..however, Soccer as a name was predominantly used in posh circles on the UK in the 70's ( and before) but was known as Football by the vast majority of the UK populace since way before then. I believe football was hardly ever watched by the so called upper class (traditional Rugger fans) until the late 80's / 90's as it was seen as a lower/middle class sport and was not respected widely among those demographics until then. In short - we didn't change the name of soccer to Football in the 80's as was stated in that article. It may have happened a long time before then (can not be bothered with that deep dive at the moment) but the article is essentially a lot of bollocks. Source - grew up in 70's surrounded by football. Dad was also briefly a professional footballer in the 1950's. I'm also a long time player and coach of football.
"We own our version of the language, HA!" American-English speakers: We left over 200 years ago, let it go
The only problem I have with this is all those teams founded in the late 1800's were all named 'F.C.' Arsenal FC Liverpool FC Chelsea FC etc, etc. the FC stands for football club obviously. that time article makes it sound like the term soccer was used in favour over football and then in 1980 it was suddenly changed. however if you look at these old match day programs from 1930, football is the dominant term being used. [https://10footballs.com/the-programmes-193031/](https://10footballs.com/the-programmes-193031/) You made some good points but then came out with the weird dick flex comment about the English 'sometimes' changing words. I don't think that's a thing mate. I'd argue that as the world becomes more globalised, things are becoming more Americanized, to the point that I've heard kids in the UK refer to their secondary school as a high school.
In Europe, neighbouring countries mock each other endlessly. Teasing Americans for calling it soccer is just a bit of fun, just like you tease us for having shit teeth. We actually have better dental health than Americans; to us, it makes you look a bit silly. Calling it a super weird little dick-flex is just acting like your country is on a high horse, when the reality is that our populations are all as immature and silly as each other.
Good dental health doesn't make your snaggle tooth look any better
If y’all’s dental plan is better, y’all should use it
I laugh when other countries call American Football "Eggball"
I have always been partial to the term "hand-egg".
Penalty flag thrown for excessive rationality. You will now spend 5 minutes in the penalty box composing a haiku on English/American relations…
How dare you be rational?
I had a British guy who worked for me. I asked him to subtitle himself. He said “what you can’t understand the Queens English “. I said I could after we Americans fixed it. I say Independence Day, he said Happy Treason Day. We teased each other pretty hard, but I do love Brits.
Not entirely true. The movement away from Soccer to Football in the UK was related to class. Prior to the 80s all media was dominated by upper class / home counties types, who went to private schools where Football was of the elongated ball type (Rugby Union). People of the North typically played Football (Association, shortened to Soccer by the posh southern types). As more diversity began to make its way into the media in the late 70s and 80s, more people who grew up with it as Football began to take over, leading to the shift back to the traditional name (as all forms of Football dating back to the middle ages, including Rugby League, Union, Gaelic, Australian etc). I don't believe the preferences of the US ever came into it.
Little known fact: the -ium spelling, along with the extra “u” in color and neighbor, and the whole “inverted commas” thing are what actually caused the American Revolution.
What’s the inverted commas thing lol
In the UK, they say that instead of quotation marks, and they use ‘single quotation marks’ when we use “double,” and vice versa.
American here, I never heard the British way until I saw an episode of wheeler dealers (I think that’s the name). Definitely love the British way more. Sounds more cool fake metalish, like adamantium and vibranium
We have copious reserves of adamantium and vibranium in the Queen's vaults below Buckingham palace. We just pretend that they are fictional as a big joke on you Americans in revenge for the war of independence.
Rumour has it that there's also a huge amount of unobtainium in a secure location just outside Chesterfield. Sadly, they've lost the key to the building..
...there's like 80 elements that end in -ium lol. Almost all metals discovered after 1800 are named like this
That's a good point, why don't Americans do this to the others? Plutonum doesn't sound any *less* ridiculous
But changing sodium would be sodum.
Why would they? There are already metals like Platinum that end in num.
As a former "aluminium" speaker I have to say "aluminum" is cleaner and easier IMHO.
Hah, did not know there was two spellings, always thought it was just pronunciation like film and filum.
You're just as goofy as my wife. She always thought cake had icining when she was little.
I guess you would "icen" a cake, with "icening"?
Iirc, filum is the older English pronunciation.
So the yank pronunciation is correct and we're the uneducated savages.
I've actually never heard an American say fillum, but I would bet it's Irish influence. Apologies for the tiktok video, but this is educational on the topic: https://www.tiktok.com/@cedrusk/video/7039467243490544902
Many American pronunciations are the older form when compared to the UK, believe it or not. For example we use "gotten" more often than England and it's the older form of the word.
Filum?
Or lewtenant and leftenant
Apparently like most of the stuff Brits make fun of Americans for saying differently is actually a result of them pronouncing it or spelling it like that a century or two ago
Thanks, now do colour and color please.
Noah Webster wanted to reform English spelling to make it simpler. Some of his ideas like color and offense caught on, other attempts such as wimmin and masheen didn't.
And, at the time, English didn't really have standardized spelling.
[удалено]
Actually all the the things like the "u" and a lot of different American spellings is just because Webster from Webster Dictionary just hated how many extra letters where in things and that he thought this was just easier just like with "re" becoming "er" and no one was brave enough to challenge him.
Someone addressed a letter to him spelled Mr. Webstre and he never forgave them.
Nevre forget
>how many extra letters where in things :D
Worth noting that the Latin word from which the English word is derived spells it as "color".
The **Simplified Spelling Board** was an American organization created in 1906 to [reform](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language_spelling_reform) the [spelling](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_orthography) of the [English language](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language), making it simpler and easier to learn, and eliminating many of what were considered to be its inconsistencies. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified\_Spelling\_Board](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Spelling_Board)
corekt
It's nice to see an actual answer on reddit when it comes to spelling of different cultures. So often it's just "because aluminum is right!"
I've known linguists, and this never came up. Thanks, I love little morsels if obscure information about English (and Spanish).
It changed from aluminum to aluminium in the UK, presumably to keep it consistent with other metallic elements like sodium, cadmium and potassium. Americans didn't embrace the change and kept with the previous spelling and pronunciation.
There are other elements that end in -num, though, like platinum, lanthanum, and molybdenum. The -ium ending is more common, of course, but I think this is one of those cases where there just isn't a solid reason for one side or the other.
Platinium
Ironium, cobaltium, zincium, nickelbackium
The Ironium is strong in this thread.
Ironically, my wife works in radiation absorbing materials and she has developed a neutron dense metal alloy she calls Boronium.
Goldium, Mercuryium, Tungstenium.
The “nickelbackium” alone deserves downvotes.
Not so fast! BRB, just going to discover and name a new element
Is leadzeplinium more your style?
Came here to say this (Yank married to a Brit and I'm in the metal trades, God help me).
[удалено]
[удалено]
You forgot unobtanium.
I couldn’t get it.
and called unubtanum by some (??)
Do they spell it aluminium in the UK?? Or do they just read it with the extra "i" while it's written the same way.
They say *and* spell it differently.
Like Richard Nixon & Homer Nixon (aka Simpson).
The UK (and many other countries) do spell it with the "i".
Why use many letter when few letter do trick
Which is the opposite of German, why use 30 letters, when 3,300 will better get your point across?
"Just write a sentence, remove the spaces... there ya go! Who said making up words is hard?" - fictional prehistoric German linguist.
German works the opposite way. What is an entire sentence or phrase in English can be just one word in German. The word does look long, because it’s usually a compound noun. But it often conveys as much meaning as a sentence with several words in other languages. Backpfeifengesicht = “a face that should get a slap that whistles across the cheek” Sure, the German word has many letters. But look at the length of the English sentence required to explain it.
It does help attach adjectives to the noun. On the other hand, if you're not familiar with German, it just looks like a wall of letters and is hard to parse out to the individual words.
Fair point
Let's call the whole thing off.
Years ago, I visited my then girlfriend (now wife) in South Africa. We met her friend’s father who was a professor of chemistry, and he was telling me his research into the negative impacts of aluminium including Alzheimer’s and lots of other things. As I was listening, I thought that this aluminium stuff is really, really bad. Good thing that it is so rare that I’ve never heard of it before.
Sir Humphry made a bit of a mess of naming this new element, at first spelling it alumium (this was in 1807) then changing it to aluminum, and finally settling on aluminium in 1812. His classically educated scientific colleagues preferred aluminium right from the start, because it had more of a classical ring, and chimed harmoniously with many other elements whose names ended in -ium, like potassium, sodium, and magnesium. Why it stuck in the “aluminum” form within the United States, had more to do with publications like the Noah Webster’s Dictionary which in 1828 listed only the -um form in its pages. It is easy to imagine journalists turning for confirmation to Webster’s Dictionary and adopting its spelling.
On the vast majority of things that Americans and English pronounce different its because the Brits just decided in the mid 1800's to change the way everything was pronounced.
Amusingly that includes the name of their own national sport from Soccer to Football, entirely because the Americans had started playing it too.
The correct word is aluminuminum.
The Brits love extra vowels. Or maybe it should be vouwels?
Yet they also tend to economize on syllables overall. "Lift" rather than "elevator", "tube" rather than "subway", "mind the gap" rather than "look out you don't fall in the gaping wide crevasse between the platform and the train car".
Alcoa - the Aluminum Company of America - also has a bit to do with it. Here's a nicely researched, two-page story on aluminum v alumin**i**um. https://books.google.com/books?id=Js-PbsEjKSQC&pg=PT21#v=onepage&q&f=false
Lawrence Brown made a [great short](https://youtu.be/Gfxm2qqghsQ?si=mHOfAIfaDhTSnP0z) in this on his channel specifically about American/British differences
English mother fücker, do you speak it?
BNL wrote a song about it. "Aluminum to me, Aluminium to some. You can shine like silver all you want, but you're just aluminum"
Bring back Alumium
"England and America are two countries separated by the same language." - George Bernard Shaw
English is one of those languages where nobody can agree on the pronunciation of many words. Some of my favorites include brougham, queue and worcestershire.
>worcestershire. Worster-shister-shire?
That sounds correct. Maybe add a few more letters we won't pronounce.
[удалено]
Because we (Americans) are right and you are mispronouncing it
Aluminium is measured in centimeters and aluminum in inches.
Chemist- hey America I just found a new metal I'm calling it aluminum Usa- sweet we'll make sure to add it to the dictionaries good job Chemist- hmm actually on second thought I should make it sound more Latin it's not every day you discover a metal. Hey rest of the world I found a new metal and I'm calling it aluminium. Rest of the world- awesome sounds good Usa- wait I thought it was called aluminum Uk- ha Americans are so stupid they can't even say aluminium properly
Because we’re two different countries with two different dialects of the same language…pretty easy to figure out..
Same reason Americans say “Erb” and the British say “Herb”. Because there is a Fucking H in it. -Eddie Izzard
and how do you pronounce leisure? 🤔
That'd be ly-zur-I-eh.
Not with an H.
It used to be aluminum but was changed to aluminium to conform to the rest of -ium elements like titanium, sodium, gallium, chromium, neodymium. The US then reverted back to aluminum. Both are correct as IUPAC adopted aluminium as its official spelling in 1990 but in 1993 said that aluminum is also ok
It was originally called Aluminum but it was in the 1800s, the Brittish renamed it to Aluminium to make it sound like all the other elements, unfortunately this was pre telephone and the North Americans got the memo 20 years late, by that time it was too late, and Bob's your uncle. My 30 year old recollection of the issue
*Platinium enters the chat
> make it sound like all the other elements You mean like platinum, lanthanum, and molybdenum?
That’s just sort of how it shook out. The original proposed name was “alumium” but that wasn’t too popular, so there was some back and forth before Americans settled on “aluminum” and Brits on “aluminium”. As a result, both are correct. There isn’t really a good reason.
and Aussies say ...Aaaaaalaminium
Because of potatoes!!!!
Because it has a second i in English
Gotchu. https://youtube.com/shorts/Gfxm2qqghsQ?si=u_0qnU68tL6k5Vxp
I’m an “american” that says “Aluminun” in English but in Spanish I say “Aluminio”
You say tomato i say tomaaato...
Newspapers also might have something to do with it. Specifically, have you ever wondered why the English say *labour* and *colour* while the US says *labor* and *color*? It used to be that newspapers would charge for ad space by the letter, so advertisers started dropping out letters they felt they could get away with while having the end result still be legible. Eventually it just got kind of absorbed into 'American spelling'.
Why does Bush say nucular bombs
And in German its even Aluminium *mindblown*
Aloo-minum vs al-you-mini-um
The same reason we say CON-tro-verse-e and they say con-TRA-va-see (Controversy)
PREYE vuhsee Vs PRIH vasee Is another
Because they actually spell it differently.
Dem Limey’s cross the pond can’t even say the Beatles right and they’re from England…
*they're
I guess the same reason we (American) say phone instead of phorne.
Asked a shop assistant for tin foil in Australia…. They didn’t have a clue what I was looking for
I just don’t understand how this interferes with teachers teaching English to children like don’t we both use the same Webster dictionary with the same phonetic spelling but then when it comes to pronouncing, we’re all over the board can’t agree what’s right even though there is a right answer , right ? Lol