ralspireite1866, on 23 March 2019 - 03:53 PM, said:
Maths is the abbreviation of mathematics. “mathematics” can be considered as a singular and as a plural noun, so I guess both 'is' and 'are' can be grammatically correct.
Imposter! Where’s Trev?!?
Well, he arrived in jocular form. I’ll take the liberty of telling you that “Maths/Marhematics” is not a collective noun (like “the media/police”) which can take a singular or plural form of the “be” verb (as in “the media/police is/are...”) but a simple noun which, like “physics,” is representative of one concept and is used in the singular form only. Whatever the dictionary says, I’ve only ever heard “Physics/Maths is (not “are”) (a nightmare)”. Language rules are based on actual use and do mutate/change over time. Though I do half agree with Johnny Spireite that the yanks always dumb things down to make it easier to understand for themselves....
Is that satisfactory, Trev?
This post has been edited by Nerima Spireite: 23 March 2019 - 04:34 PM