Sulphur spelling

[sbarnes]

Oxford dictionary states it Sulphur, case closed.

[Guest55]

Did you read my post?

[Sally-Anne]

Oh, for goodness sake! Can no one on this forum stop squabbling over the slightest thing?

[scary mum]

I had no idea it was sulfur (autocorrected to "selfie" by my phone). I shall ask my chemistry studying children what they have been taught.

[sbarnes]

Its in the text books, its all over the place. There is no escape, American culture and language is taking over

[Catseye]

Oh, for goodness sake! Can no one on this forum stop squabbling over the slightest thing?

I almost choked (gagged -yes lets not go there) when I read SA post

You say "ee-ther" and I say "eye-ther",
You say "nee-ther" and I say "ny-ther";
Ee-ther, eye-ther, nee-ther, ny-ther!
Let's call the whole thing off!
You like "po-tay-to" and I like "po-tah-to",
You like "to-may-to" and I like "to-mah-to";
Po-tay-to, po-tah-to, to-may-to, to-mah-to!
Let's call the whole thing off!

[Tinkers]

Ok, my chemistry teaching sister has got back to me.

Students won't be penalised for using one spelling or the other.

(And I'd quite happily accept the f version if they accept metric )

[hermanmunster]

It is no big deal, pharmacists / doctors had to change the spellings (and names) of a hug range of drugs a few years ago - it all shakes down in the end and TBH the old names / spellings look really odd now:

[scary mum]

I checked with my son who is doing his chemistry GCSE this week & he said they seem to use either.

[ToadMum]

As has been said already, it's not Americanisation, it's harmonisation of spelling at least in the scientific context. DS2 just said, 'in science it's with an f and outside science lessons it's ph'. In terms of medicines, one of the main issues was that of improving safety, I believe.

If your child waxes lyrical about 'sulphurous fumes' or whatever, I doubt that their English teacher will mark it as incorrect (though it's possible that their Geography teacher might, I suppose).