Fun Stuff > CHATTER
English is weird
Carl-E:
People would just say (as you wound up doing) "fields of math(ematic)s". The fields are what's plural.
pwhodges:
Even the Economist has ignorant sub-editors, it would seem; maths is (see!*) treated as a singular noun, just as the full word mathematics is.
* Well, I realise it's not really the same, as here it is the word, not the field, which is the subject.
LTK:
Why is 'quenching' a word we use in the context of both fire and thirst?
And it's not English, but I just realised that the literal translation of the Dutch word for french toast is turningbitches.
pwhodges:
Quench is also used in electricity (quench a spark) and electronics (quench an oscillation). It's about the ending of the previous state, not wetness or hotness.
LTK:
I asked a friend to proofread my report and he claims that every time I use the phrase "on the other hand" I should have prefaced that with "on the one hand" before, but I only rarely do that. I usually use "on the other hand" synonymously with "however", in this manner:
"Electrode A showed these results. Electrode B, on the other hand, showed different results."
Is this generally acceptable use or should I change it?
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