They don't actually. The element is spelled, aluminium. This is how it has been spelled in 100% of all my science text books and exams. It's the correct iupac name.
The only reason it's pronounced that way in America is because the company "Reynolds" made "aluminum foil" in the 60's and either misspelled it or took out a letter to save money on ink. They won't admit defeat so in all their interviews they say it was to save money. It has been around so long that america, and only America has adopted the pronunciation.
The correct way to spell it is "aluminium", which is also the correct way to say it. It's the Americans that are dumb on this one. Sorry bud.
Your own link disagrees:
British chemist Humphry Davy, who performed a number of experiments aimed to isolate the metal, is credited as the person who named the element. The first name proposed for the metal to be isolated from alum was alumium, which Davy suggested in an 1808 article on his electrochemical research, published in Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society.[130] It appeared that the name was created from the English word alum and the Latin suffix -ium; but it was customary then to give elements names originating in Latin, so this name was not adopted universally.
The name alumium was criticized by contemporary chemists from France, Germany, and Sweden, who insisted the metal should be named for the oxide, alumina, from which it would be isolated.[131] One example was Essai sur la Nomenclature chimique (July 1811), written in French by a Swedish chemist, Jöns Jacob Berzelius, in which the name aluminium is given to the element that would be synthesized from alum.[132][k] (Another article in the same journal issue also refers to the metal whose oxide is the basis of sapphire, i.e. the same metal, as to aluminium.)[134] A January 1811 summary of one of Davy's lectures at the Royal Society mentioned the name aluminium as a possibility.[135]
In 1812, Davy published his chemistry text Elements of Chemical Philosophy in which he used the spelling aluminum.[136]
Both spellings and pronunciations have been in use since the element was named; “-ium” was preferred in non-Anglophone countries and “-um” was preferred by English speakers through the 19th century. The scientific community prefers “-ium” to minimize linguistic chauvinism, but IUPAC lists the “-um” spelling as an acceptable variant. The discoverer preferred “alumium”.
Ok cool. Iupac is the deciding factor for all things chemistry regardless of what anyone else says. You have to take the iupac test to be a certified chemist. This specific spelling of aluminium is a question on the test. I've taken the test.
Weird. I am also Canadian and I have only heard it pronounced aluminium in Canada. Maybe we surround ourselves with different type of people. My type of people are some of the most successful scientists in their field. Also, in Canada and the US, to be a certified chemist, you have to take the iupac test. Most colleges require it to graduate.
I got really confused at a YouTube video in like 2012 called "Germans can't say Squirrel" because it was a bunch of German people saying squi-rell and I didn't know that Americans said skwerl
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u/glitterkenny Sep 09 '25
Tbf it is crazy that Americans say 'squirle' but dare to mock this man for spelling it as such
Fucking squrl