Having lived my entire life in the U.S. (except for vacations), I’ve never heard “maths,” only “math.” It kind of makes sense to me, since it’s short for “mathematics.” So I’m wondering whether any Americans have started adding the “s.”
We say maths (plural) here too. The American math (singular) always sounds strange to my ears.
How do Americans abbreviate statistics: stats or stat?
“Math” is certainly an Americanism: “maths” is used not only in Britain but also NZ, Australia, and for all I know the rest of the Commonwealth.
It’s “Math” in Canada.
Stats.
No, “math” is a North Americanism.
Point taken, but while you can have a statistic, but you can’t have a mathematic. So is it really a plural at all?
My parents call it “maths” (they’re Indian)
My sister and I call it “math”-we were raised mostly in Canada (Quebec), later the US.
This applies to sport, too - although it’s not an abbrev.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Cunctator
How do Americans abbreviate statistics: stats or stat?
Hmmm. If you’re referring to a statistics course, it’s “stat”. If you’re referring to the statistics about something, then it’s “stats”. But it’s always just “math”. “Maths” hurts my ears.
It’s definately called ‘maths’ here in New Zealand.
I say maths, he says math (he’s Irish)
And that’s where the world gets it backwards from the US. Here, kids are into sports - not just one of them.
Nitpick: both “mathematics” and “maths” are usually treated as singular, not plural. Do you say:
Maths/mathematics was my favourite subject.
or:
Maths/mathematics were my favourite subjects.
?
We say maths in South Africa.
I say “maths”, she says “maths” (she’s Irish).
It depends: as a school subject, it would be singular, as in, “Statistics is really hard.” As numerical data, it would be plural, as in “These statistics are driving me crazy.” As far as I know you can’t have a mathematic, at least as a noun. As an adjective, now, hmmm… a mathematic equation? That to me would suggest that it refers to the entire field of study, and would be different from a “mathematics equation”, which would be a problem set in a school maths class. Any mathematicians here want to chime in?
Wouldn’t it be a mathematical equation?
Then there’s inning (baseball) and innings (cricket) - both singular.
I’ve never seen/heard it from any American. So when I see a thread named something like “Maths Question” I can be pretty sure it was not started by an American Doper.
As for why Americans say “math” instead of “maths,” I guess it’s because (1) it’s singular, so why put the “s” on the end? and (2) that “ths” sound is hard to say. But I would be interested in seeing a cite as to which came first, “math” or “maths.”