ShiftyPowers
Make America Great Again
I have not read the back and forth between you and Alex because I am positive it will be a waste of time. I am watching this stupid Republican Debate tonight.
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ShiftyPowers;3910427 said:Math is never plural.
Bobby;3910448 said:If you ever become a republic like us you have to start calling it math and driving on the correct side of the road.
ShiftyPowers;3910450 said:Do you call Economics Econs?
Alex;3910451 said:Ha. Why do Canada do all of that already? Traitors.
Quote from http://grammarist.com/spelling/math-maths/
You’re getting confused, perhaps because “mathematics” can be used in two different ways.
Mathematics is the study of all the mathematical sciences. But as a label, it denotes a subject of study, and the subject itself is singular. But the target of the label is plural. If the analysis of all radishes was deemed sufficiently important to become a subject in its own right, “radishes” would be a subject, and we might say, “I hate radishes; it sucks”. In that context we are treating “radishes” as a subject, and it is a singular in that regard. If you wanted to contract “radishes”, you could go the American route and simply contract the label itself to “rad”, or you could go the British route and create a label pointing to a contraction of the target of the label, the radishes themselves (a plural), and end up with “rads”, which maintains the plurality.
Incidentally, Americans tend to use similar logic when discussing rock groups and sporting teams: they will conjugate based on the label, not on the target of the label. The British always conjugate based on the target (and they treat all groups and teams as being plural). If an American is talking about the Miami Dolphins, they might say:
“Miami sucks.”
“The dolphins suck.”
If a Brit is talking about Blackburn Rovers, they might say:
“Blackburn are doing well this year.”
“Rovers are doing well this year.”
The consistency comes from the fact that it is the target of the label being used in both cases, and the label itself is irrelevant.
Of interest: if you look up the Wikipedia page of any British rock band where the name/label is a singular, it will always treat them as a plural, e.g. “Led Zeppelin were an English rock band formed in London in 1968”. If you do the same for any US rock band, it will always treat them as a singular, e.g. “Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987.” This reflects the different rule systems used in the two different countries.
Bobby;3910459 said:Why do you call pickups "utes"?
Bobby;3910464 said:Oh so they're like El Caminos and Rancheros then. Neat.
Alex;3910393 said:I'm confident saying I'm better at maths, physics, chemistry and computer science than you. IF you disagree, great, I think you're wrong. I'm not going to give you a list of accomplishments because you don't know what they mean, you don't understand their context, and in any case - doing doesn't necessarily have anything to do with intellect.