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Yankee

#357511 Sun, 29 Apr 07 04:39 PM

Hi Kooyeen
Yes, percentages is probably better, but I can't rule out the possibility that 'percents' might be used in such a sentence instead.

Yankee

Joined on Sat, Apr 15 2006

Connecticut, USA

Senior Member (4,471)

Amy "You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." - Mark Twain

Yoong Liat

#357528 Sun, 29 Apr 07 05:00 PM

Hi Kooyeen
I don't like that plural too, but I think it might be used sometimes... I think I would say "...calculate and use percentages in math class."

"Math' is AmE while 'maths' is BrE.

Yoong Liat

Joined on Mon, Sep 4 2006

Singapore

Veteran Member (6,149)

Yoong Liat

Plurals

Grammar Geek

#357536 Sun, 29 Apr 07 05:09 PM

And Kooyeen is learning American English, so he was spot on.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (16,617)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

American English

Angliholic

#357839 Mon, 30 Apr 07 07:55 AM

Grammar Geek wrote:

And Kooyeen is learning American English, so he was spot on.

Hi, GG.

Would you shed some light on "so he was spot on?" That's Greek to me.

Angliholic

Joined on Wed, Feb 14 2007

SomewhereinFormosa

Veteran Member (5,657)

Without true love, life is meaningless and worthless since our physical world is nothing but a dream. ~~Angliholic~~簡瑞達

American English, Grammar

Stannum

#357851 Mon, 30 Apr 07 08:21 AM

G'day Yankee,

In Australian maths the plural of percentage is percentages.

Ausralians do not study percent or percents, we study percentage and percentages.

You are correct that there is no plural of percent.

A percent is a number and a number is uncountable in most contexts, this being one of them.

Stannum

Joined on Fri, Oct 28 2005

Melbourne Australia

Regular Member (526)

Plurals, Numbers

Grammar Geek

#358018 Mon, 30 Apr 07 03:21 PM

Angliholic wrote:
Grammar Geek wrote:

And Kooyeen is learning American English, so he was spot on.

Hi, GG.

Would you shed some light on "so he was spot on?" That's Greek to me.

Spot on - exactly on the mark, hit the target just right, completely right. (It's actually a UK expression and not really American, so I was being a little ironic when I used it, since we were talking about American/UK differences.)

By the way, just to add my voice to Yankee's, generally percent WOULD be uncountable, but the decription of a child coming home and saying "We're studying decimals, fractions, and percents in math right now" sounds completely normal. (Heck, I may have recently heard it at my own dinner table.) Because in class, they talk about 10 percent, or 50 percent, not percentages.

Grammar Geek

American English, Grammar, Expressions

Stannum

#358223 Mon, 30 Apr 07 09:25 PM

Grammar Geek wrote:
By the way, just to add my voice to Yankee's, generally percent WOULD be uncountable, but the decription of a child coming home and saying "We're studying decimals, fractions, and percents in math right now" sounds completely normal. (Heck, I may have recently heard it at my own dinner table.) Because in class, they talk about 10 percent, or 50 percent, not percentages.

I am very glad that I am not trying to learn how to use percent and percentages as I would now be quite confused.

Stannum