> I don't know what Americans you've been listening to who pronounce > 'everything the way they see it'. I know the stereotypical American will announce everything we can all see. Especially in movie theaters - "LOOK MARGE, HERE COMES THE ALIEN !". Grrrrrr ! :-) > Most Americans pronounce most words very much like the British do. The > 'b' in 'plumber' is, indeed, silent in typical American pronunciation. But Americans get much better mileage out of 'Z' than the English. They even have their own name for it. > Accents aside, only a few words are noticeably different (British > 'speciALity' vs American 'SPECialty' and British 'aluMINium' vs > American 'aLUMinum' come to mind). Is there a reason why there is Aluminum but not Sodum, Potassum, Plutonum, Uranum, etc. ? Is it spelt that way on periodic tables or is it just the popular use spelling/pronounciation ? Steve. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.