4 ms·

I think the US is the odd one out hete with your one unit of 'math'. Mathematics -> maths You don't say, "I am learning mathematic", unless you are a cretin.

DSMan195276 9y ago
It has an 's' at the end, but it is still treated as a singular noun in most contexts. You don't say "My favorite subjects are mathematics", you say "My favorite subject is mathematics".
- mort96 9y ago
  To be fair, you would also not say “My favorite subjects are games”; there’s only one subject, called “games”, even though the word “games” is a plural form of “game”. I can’t really come up with a situation where you would want to refer to multiple “mathematicses”; it kind of just is something ethereal, not a _thing_ where it makes sense to refer to one or many.
  - DanBC 9y ago
    Hypothetical_Bob: "I like applied and pure maths. Mathss are my favourite subjects. I don't know which one to pick for my A levels".
- akatechis 9y ago
  Most people abbreviate "economics" as "econ" why not "mathematics" as "math"?
idle_zealot 9y ago
This is the wrong place for this debate, but "math" is an abbreviation of "mathematics". Why would you take the end of a word you are abbreviating and add it to your abbreviation? I'll add that "mathematics" is a singular noun.
- DonHopkins 9y ago
  All of mathematics is connected at the root, so there is only one math.
- tomjakubowski 9y ago
  I've long preferred "math's", which was actually in common use at some point in the 19th century. It's a contraction, like "bo's'n" :-).
dgfgfdagasdfgfa 9y ago
> You don't say, "I am learning mathematic", unless you are a cretin. So why is "maths" plural? It's sure as hell not countable. What is "a math"? At least "mathematic" makes sense—you can deconstruct the morphology to understand this is "a lesson", i.e. the gerund of "to learn". It's also the natural english adjectival form of the greek word. "maths" is just weird. You might as well use "magicks".

DSMan195276 9y ago

It has an 's' at the end, but it is still treated as a singular noun in most contexts. You don't say "My favorite subjects are mathematics", you say "My favorite subject is mathematics".

mort96 9y ago
To be fair, you would also not say “My favorite subjects are games”; there’s only one subject, called “games”, even though the word “games” is a plural form of “game”. I can’t really come up with a situation where you would want to refer to multiple “mathematicses”; it kind of just is something ethereal, not a _thing_ where it makes sense to refer to one or many.
- DanBC 9y ago
  Hypothetical_Bob: "I like applied and pure maths. Mathss are my favourite subjects. I don't know which one to pick for my A levels".
akatechis 9y ago
Most people abbreviate "economics" as "econ" why not "mathematics" as "math"?

idle_zealot 9y ago

This is the wrong place for this debate, but "math" is an abbreviation of "mathematics". Why would you take the end of a word you are abbreviating and add it to your abbreviation? I'll add that "mathematics" is a singular noun.

DonHopkins 9y ago
All of mathematics is connected at the root, so there is only one math.
tomjakubowski 9y ago
I've long preferred "math's", which was actually in common use at some point in the 19th century. It's a contraction, like "bo's'n" :-).

dgfgfdagasdfgfa 9y ago

> You don't say, "I am learning mathematic", unless you are a cretin. So why is "maths" plural? It's sure as hell not countable. What is "a math"? At least "mathematic" makes sense—you can deconstruct the morphology to understand this is "a lesson", i.e. the gerund of "to learn". It's also the natural english adjectival form of the greek word. "maths" is just weird. You might as well use "magicks".