On Feb 19, 2010, at 7:52 AM, Matthew Burgess wrote: > Being a speaker of "British English" rather than "US English" I would > actually say "maths libraries" rather than "math libraries". I've never > quite understood why Americans drop the 's'. The word being contracted is > 'mathematics' (plural) and by the American contraction seems to be shortened > to 'mathematic' (singular, which I'm not sure even exists as a concept, with > mathematics being a collection of individual mathematical disciplines).
I'd guess that most American English speakers wouldn't consider "mathematics" to be plural in terms of sentence construction. It's a general issue we have with collective nouns. -- In BrE, collective nouns can take either singular (formal agreement) or plural (notional agreement) verb forms... In AmE, collective nouns are usually singular in construction. BrE: The Clash are a well-known band; AmE: The Clash is a well-known band. BrE: New Orleans are the champions; AmE: New Orleans is the champion. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences -- Main Entry: math·e·mat·ics Function: noun plural but usually singular in construction http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mathematics Zach
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