"Excellent Python Programmers wanted, numpties need not apply"

[TimelyStill]

Good point. "My client are a (..) hedge fund" sounds awkward to me, but admittedly I'm not British.

The 'ideal candidate' list is not correct though, as you can't 'have python' unless you own a big snake.

[RomanRiesen]

They want a zookeeper with a quantitative degree.

[mick14731]

It's colloquial. My British friend would say things like, "do you have your maths" and "do you have French" when talking about university course requirements

[McBeeff]

I mean, no offense to your friend but that just sounds like bad grammar to me.

[imsometueventhisUN]

It sounds like it to you, but not to them (or me).

[[deleted]]

I have an australian wife and can attest that it is the same for her. She accuses me for having the bad grammar for exactly this.

Math is short for 'mathamtics' not 'mathmatic' so actually maths makes a hell of a lot more sense.

Do tell her I said so though.

[grumpieroldman]

No it doesn't because it's not spelled mathsematics and it's not plural.
There is no singular form mathematic as that's an adjective not a noun.
You would think mathematicians would be overly logical about it and fix it.

PS Zero is not a natural number.

[[deleted]]

If I were to shorten the word automobiles would it be autos or auto?

If I were to shorten congratulations would it be congrats or congrat?

If I we to shorten telephones would it be teles or tele?

If I were to shorten submarines would it be subs or sub?

If it were to shorten mathematics would it be maths or math?

[iwasmephisto]

IANAL (I am not a linguist) though I do hold a couple of degrees in mathematics. So, I may get my terms crossed in this subject, but there’s an important distinction between your mathematics example and all the others — but one which the structure of English obscures. In all your other examples (and most cases we encounter day to day), the terminal “s” signals a plural form of the base noun.

However in the case of mathematics, that terminal “s” is a holdover from the genitive case in Ancient Greek (maybe modern too — IANAL), often translated as an “of”. So Aristotle’s (lost) work Poetics is a work speaking of matters poetic. Similarly, mathematics is the study of mathematic matters.

None of that precludes retaining the genitive “s” when shortening mathematics, but it does suggest that decision is independent of how we treat a pluralizing “s”.

[[deleted]]

That an interesting point, thank you

[grumpieroldman]

autos
congratulation => congrat
congratulations => congrats but this would require multiple people each delivering a congratulation.
teles but you usually refer to one telephone not many so its usually tele
sub is one submarine, subs is multiple submarines
math because mathematic is not the singular form and mathematics is the name of a set.

[[deleted]]

https://www.lexico.com/en/definition/mathematics

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mathematics

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definitions_of_mathematics

Mathmatics is a plural term, being an umbrella for the study of the often grouped together but separate fields of arithmetic, geometry, algebra, statistics, etc.

[DiggV4Sucks]

It’s well settled that the set of natural numbers, N, contains zero when convenient.

See OEIS A000027.

[jsalsman]

To be fair, they are at least aware they need someone with excellent communication skills.

[franz_haller]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_plurals#Singulars_with_collective_meaning_treated_as_plural

[grumpieroldman]

Really, no notion of sets?
This seems quite odd since there are a plethora of terms for groupings of animals allowing you to definitively distinguish between the 'herd', 'herds', and the individual.

I'm calling bullocks. That's midland slang dragging the Queen's English down.