Why do British people pronounce the l's in paella and dislike silent h's so much?

"Ridiculous and plural" - so you're saying that the long form *should* be changed to "mathematic" ?

For the same reason we say "BITE ME!" It's because were Americans and can say any damn thing we like. Get over it.

Jamiet, to be honest, it's not so strange to use it in the singular, since that's the way it works in other languages.

shorter

Why do Brits say sport instead of sports? Cricket is a sport. Rugby is a sport. Collectively they are sports (plural) not sport.

When Americans say sports or math, I notice the difference from my mother tongue, but I can still understand what is being said; and that's the whole point of communication so it's no big deal.

A brief lesson on the English language:

It is so stupid.

That's why people should all learn Latin.

Quo mundi vadis?

@ Draugnar - Brits use both "sport" and "sports", actually. For example:

"Football is a sport" (singular)

"Rugby is a sport" (singular)

"Football and rugby are both popular sports in the UK" (plural)

"Many children take part in sport" (where "sport" refers to the overall concept, and is not being used as a group noun, therefore singular)

The non-existence of the ablative case is enough to make English better and less stupid than Latin.

Much like Pepsi and Coke I dare say the one you try first is the one that feels right. I dare say in the Oxford dictionary of English (the really big definitive one full of words that nobody uses anymore with the exception of Boris Johnson) both versions are considered acceptable. Still, for the sake of misplaced national pride I will insist that saying math makes you sound a bit special.

The ablative case is the best thing that has ever happened to the world.

Why do the British use plural verb forms with singular collective nouns? A team *is*, not are.

A sporting team, like a rock band, *are* because they are a *they*, not an "it".

Thus: "Megadeth are one of my favourite bands", not "Megadeth is one of my favourite bands"

Megadeth are an American band. See that? I tied it all together.

A sporting team or band name is an example of a mass noun, which is unquantifiable. A lot of sportswriters had this issue last summer during the NBA Finals when the Thunder played the Heat. A team is made up of many people, true, but the name itself is singular. Another example of a mass noun is the word "water." You wouldn't say "Water are coming out of the tap." British assholes.

The way I look at it is when you shorten word you take the first part. Science fiction is abbreviated to sci-fi not scie fin. We typically don't include the end of the word in the short form so maths sounds weird as an exception to that rule

Until you guys try to learn some of V's lines you lose the right to complain about English being difficult. Try committing "vowed to vanquish the virulent and venal vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing violently vicious and voracious violation of volition" to memory

Yeah, the English have no idea how stupid it sounds when they say, "maths."

You can complain about "math" being wrong.
You can complain about "math" being improper.
You can complain about "math" being a poorer representation of the original.

You cannot say "math" sounds stupid compared to "maths."

It's all in what pleases the ear - but then that's always been a thing Brits struggle with.

I couldn't agree more, what about this one......
'We think it's a great idea to have more guns in circulation because it means less people die of gun-related deaths'....
.....the logic of complete imbeciles

haha logic is a whole different idea, Nigee. Americans are fucking retarded. We just sound better doing it.

Well, Jamie, math is the overall groups and therefore singular. I could see calling Algebra and Calculus "maths" when you say "He took two maths: Algebra and Calculus." But the group is singular. He studied math.

Like science. Physics and Chemistry are sciences. But you study science.

I don't understand why some people love language so much, including my wife and other people I respect. It's just a tool to be used, a good tool sure, and one of the oldest tools of humanity which helped us evolve past using genes and switching to memes as our main evolutionary catalyst, but just a tool nonetheless. Knowing where particular words or slang or entire languages came from may be academically interesting (not to me) but that's it.
It's not that I think academic interests aren't important, in fact I think they're the most important thing that makes us human: caring and investing in something that doesn't directly benefit survival makes us ascend past the pointless live-eat-screw-die cycle of all other organisms. Maybe it's just that I'm a science major but I just hate that "word-people" think that language is something more special then it is. It's just a tool, a technology to be used. To think that the differences in slang and word usage between British "maths" and American "math" is anything other then an inane fact for language junkies and that it actually means something important is foolish. And I especially hate when people decry the death of language, as if the natural evolution of "official" words to slang to official words is somehow a bad thing. It's not a bad or good thing. It's just a thing. Get over it. Everytime a grammer nazi derails an actual conversation to correct language they waste everyone's time, demonstrate they don't understand what's actually important to the discussion, and kill a puppy somewhere in the world. Gaaaah I don't understand it.

Whoa I just blacked out and when I came to I wrote a pointless rant about rival academic interdisciplinary complaints. Uh, sorry 'bout all that. Science, out.

Godwin's law in a language thread ^^^

hey hey raptor thats an interesting aside but not really applicable here.

You're missing the obvious point that this argument is 90% hollow nationalism.

Damn it, it's maths. As Jamiet said above, it is mathematics, not mathematic. Hell, even the auto-correct/dictionary thing here doesn't recognise it, and the first suggestion is 'mathematics'.

I propose Mat.