odd linguistic observation
it seems like a lot of people for whom english is not their first language have a tendency to say "substract" instead of "subtract"
we've noticed this both in teachers and fellow students we've known at university, and some math videos on youtube as well
I wonder where that comes from? is -[V]btr[V]- more difficult to pronounce than -[V]bstr[V]-?
-R&F
re: odd linguistic observation
@socks Huh, interesting... I wonder if other languages have an s there too, that would explain it easily
-F
odd linguistic observation
@Felthry Also of note is that it is a very rarely used word, since the common word for the mathematical operation is "restar"
re: odd linguistic observation
@socks If people are familiar with the word, even if it's one they don't use ever, it'd be natural to connect it to the english word i suppose
like when learning latin there were lots of words in latin that have really common english cognates, but some that had less common english cognates
and some that had cognates that make no sense at all, like how nubis (meaning cloud) is the origin of the word nubile (meaning "young but of age to marry/have kids"; it's a rather objectifying word honestly)
-F?
odd linguistic observation
@Felthry In Spanish the word is "sustraer" (note the lack of b) so it's closer I guess