That is annoying as hell, yes.

Even worse (this is not exclusively an American thing, but it seems to be most common among Americans) is nyoo-kyoo-lur. It's spelt Nu-Cle-Ar! Where does the "kyoo" come from?

You yanks just got lazy is all, lol.

Why don't they spell the suffix like they would for half of the other elements then? Like Helium, Magnesium, Titanium, Lithium, Potassium, Gallium, Calcium and so on, all of which end with the standard suffix 'ium'. That's the rule. Why just change the rule for Aluminium?

*Sigh* The world confuses me lol.

I agree. It's spelt "Nuclear" not "Nuculer", mind you I know a few English people that have mispronounced it. I mean I have no idea where pronouncing it "nyoo-kyoo-lur" came from, it isn't spelt remotely like that.

It's certainly a mistake a lot of the English speaking world makes though lol.

Lol, I remember me and my friend laughing at a chick on TV who pronounced it with five syllables. It just sounds funny when you are used to it a certain way.

And don't worry, us Canadians never dropped the "u" =) (except Aluminum, and for that I am sorry).

Americans change the spelling of words to be spelled phonetically after they mispronounce words for decades. Consider doughnuts, a nut made from dough, is spelt donut in the United states for some odd reason; and it is likely that in a couple decades Americans will change the spelling of nuclear to nukular to match their bastardized pronunciation of the word.

I don't really think any posts have answered the question as to why there are unnecessary letters in our words.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_spelling_differences#Historical_origins

To be fair to them on this point, aluminum was the name first suggested for the element when it was first discussed in scientific journals but was later changed to aluminium to fit the more 'classical' naming scheme. They are both acceptable names in publications, although aluminium is the preferred one.

Depends on how you class these 'unnecessary letters'.

Reading over that entire article make me realise how redundant many of the omissions or even additions are in the American versions. I've never understood why there is a difference in Cheque and Check though, even the explanation given on that page doesn't explain this. And I'd pronounce many of the american versions of our words completely differently, not just the spelling. (Example, Plough and Plow (the plow being pronounced to rhyme with 'low' in my head).

American English is the variation away from standard English, not the other way around. The American's removed the vowel for the same reason they invented the atrocity 'thru'.

Also I have a question for the Americans; why the hell can't you just adopt the metric system?!