Fandom Grammar

debirlfan wants to know: What is the difference between "maths" and "math," including British and American usages?

The short answer is, the only difference between the two is British and American usage. Let's take a look, with examples from Teen Wolf and Torchwood.

Our California werewolves and friends would say:

"We'll be lucky if you still talk to us after you win a Nobel Prize in math," Scott told Lydia.

"It's a Fields Medal for math, not a Nobel," Stiles corrected him, then hastily added, to Lydia, "Not that you're not brilliant at chemistry, too."

In Cardiff, however, the usage would be:

"What is this, a cypher?" Ianto asked, as lines and lines of numbers scrolled by on the screen.

"I'm pretty sure it's maths in a different base," Tosh answered. "But even when I figure out the conversion, I suspect it'll be an alien maths we haven't seen before."

Both math and maths are short for mathematics, but the former is preferred in the US and Canada and the latter is preferred in the rest of the English-speaking world. When I say "preferred," I mean that to a native speaker of one area, the opposite form sounds really wrong.

Some try to justify that their form is correct: "Mathematics is plural, so maths needs the 's' at the end!" "Abbreviations cut off after the first few letters!" However the arguments on both sides break down fairly quickly. As we see in most rules of English language spelling, "correctness" really is nothing more than a codification of custom and preference. Math is the dictionary-approved form in the US, and maths is the dictionary-approved form in the UK.

To avoid grating on the inner ear of your readers, pay attention to the nationality of your setting and your characters, and use math or maths accordingly.

Note that despite the "s" sometimes at the end of its forms, mathematics is a mass noun, not a count noun (you can't count one mathematic, two mathematics), so it is treated as singular in usage:

"Mathematics is my favorite subject."
"Math is my favorite subject," said Lydia.
"Maths is my favorite subject," said Tosh.

Numberphile has a wonderful video interview with a linguist that goes more in depth into the issue and background of "math" versus "maths" in America and Britain.


Maths at Oxford Dictionaries
Math at Oxford Advanced American Dictionary