English Grammar 101

[Phaseangle]

here's another pet hate....Mathematics....this subject hold many parts and branches. The words Mathematics with an "s" on the end does suggest plural or a collection of parts.

Why is Mathematics when refered to in the USA in an abbreviated version it is only refered to as "Math" shouldn't it be refered to as "Maths"

I always want to finish the word of when I see it printed by adding the letter s and certainly cringe when I hear it said as"Math"

Has anyone any sort of explaination for "Math" , I would be very interested in any enlightenment.

 

[David_Emmerich]

Isn't it "The New Math" now...or am I 30+ years out of step??

David

 

[Eric Nelson]

Its on the tip of my tounge..what movie was that from??

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us



-Eric

 

[darrenj]

LOL thats it!! I kmew i had heard that before!!

 

[Rod]

I had to take Esperanto in college, now That was a waste - hmm, maybe I should watch BladeRunner again.

Rod (speaks Marikan)

 

[pstephens]

here's another pet hate....Mathematics....this subject hold many parts and branches. The words Mathematics with an "s" on the end does suggest plural or a collection of parts.

Why is Mathematics when refered to in the USA in an abbreviated version it is only refered to as "Math" shouldn't it be refered to as "Maths"

I always want to finish the word of when I see it printed by adding the letter s and certainly cringe when I hear it said as"Math"

Has anyone any sort of explaination for "Math" , I would be very interested in any enlightenment.

'Mathematics' is one of those "plural in spelling but singular in construction" words, like 'physics', 'linguistics', 'electronics', 'mechanics', etc.

To me, "math", as an abbreviation for mathematics, sounds perfectly fine. I suppose it's because I think of the word 'mathematics' as singular, as opposed to a group or collection of more than one "mathematic". More than anything else, it's probably a case of becoming accustomed hearing it a certain way, and then any other way sounds wrong.

For example, I've never gotten used to hearing the word 'university' without the word 'the' or 'a', or some other modifier ahead of it, as in, "I'll be attending university this Fall." This seems to be common usage in Austrailia, and maybe other places, but I never heard it that way growing up, so it sounds strange.

Paula

 

[Terry Woods]

The British have a tendency to say that one has been taken "to hospital" as opposed to the American way of saying... "to THE hospital".

And yet, at the same time, we tend to say that someone has gone "to school" as opposed to saying... someone has "gone to THE school".

So... Who is wrong? Who is being inconsistent?

I find that American-English is terribly inconsistent! As far as English-English... well, they too have their problems!

 

[jolio ST]

I sort of come to a conclusion that any major language (be it English, Chinese, Latin etc), are spoken differently in different countries. It's what I would like to term it as 'Dialects'. So it really doesn't matter if a Brit and an American talks funny to each other as long as both sides understood what each other is talking about.


regards
Sherine T.

 

[RMA]

So it really doesn't matter if a Brit and an American talks funny to each other as long as both sides understood what each other is talking about.

The problem is that quite often (too often!) one party thinks that they have understood what the other one said, only to discover later (usually the hard way) that they hadn't!

 

[Alfred]

Spelling misterie

Typoglycemia

it looks weird... Believe it or not you can read it ...

I cdnuolt blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg
The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid Aoccdrnig to rscheearch taem at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as a wlohe. Such a cdonition is arppoiately cllaed Typoglycemia -

Amzanig huh? Yaeh and yuo awlyas thought slpeling was ipmorantt.

Absolutly amazing how well I read the above post and understood it without re-reading. Grammar and spelling is only for people what have nothing to say but people with something to say can say it any which way and will be understood.

Regards
Alf

 

[Terry Woods]

And so...

If only the first and last letters matter...

At what point does mis-spelling a particular word produce a different meaning?

Lost => Lsot => Lsat => Lsit => Lsut => L??t

What was the intended word? What is the intended meaning?

Supporting "Typoglycemia" as a viable method of communication is nothing less than supporting confusion and excusing a confused mind.

oooo... is that "politically incorrect"?

Yeah... like that bothers me. Get REAL! Get real in terms of the whole picture.

Should those people that are mentally forced to operate under that terrible condition be condemned and excluded for that?

No. No, they shouldn't.

Should they be encouraged that it is OK?

Absolutely not!

 

[RussB]

The British have a tendency to say that one has been taken "to hospital" as opposed to the American way of saying... "to THE hospital".

And yet, at the same time, we tend to say that someone has gone "to school" as opposed to saying... someone has "gone to THE school".

So... Who is wrong? Who is being inconsistent?

I find that American-English is terribly inconsistent! As far as English-English... well, they too have their problems!

I think that this is just a variant or "dialect". Similar to where I am from one would hear "Are you going? but where my son lives one would hear "Ya'll coming"? So long as everyone gets to the party who cares how it was asked. As of late it appears to be "in" to use the British or "Euro" way of doing and saying things, at least in the media. I do not notice it on the street though. But then it appears that anything "American" is spurned by some. I never claimed to be PC!

 

[Gerry]

Supporting "Typoglycemia" as a viable method of communication is nothing less than supporting confusion and excusing a confused mind.

oooo... is that "politically incorrect"?

Yeah... like that bothers me. Get REAL! Get real in terms of the whole picture.

Well, I didn't think anyone would get over-excited about this. It is after all just a joke email that I received.

Besides, you need to know proper spelling before you can jumble up all the letters....and, as you said earlier, it has to be syntactically sensible.

 

[Steve Bailey]

Alf,

Sotubally zangima who lewl I dare het vobea spot dan sterundodor ti toutwho di-garner. Marramg dan plelings si lony orf polepe thaw evah ghonint to yas tub polepe whit singemoth to tas anc ays it yan chiwh yaw nad will be sterundodor.

 

[Rube]

Alf,

Sotubally zangima who lewl I dare het vobea spot dan...

Damn, that was rough reading. Basically proving Terry's point. Good job Steve.