Wikipedia:Featured article candidates/Euclidean algorithm/archive1: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 09:36, 5 May 2009

Revision as of 10:06, 5 May 2009

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**::::In my way of thinking, it depends how we are using "6" in the context. Since we say "6 ''is'' composite" (just as we say "7 ''is'' prime"), it seems to me we are thinking of it as singular.

**::::"Neither," the converse of "both," usually has singular verb concord (as the Bartleby reference suggests as well). So, "Neither 6 nor 35 is prime" sounds correct to me. The adjective "prime" will not apply to instances of plural occurrences of 6; in other words, you can't apply "prime" to "six sheep," although you ''can'' say, "The number of sheep (''viz.'' 6) ''is'' prime." That is as far as ''prescriptive grammar'' goes. If you look at usage on the web, "Neither * nor * is" has [http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=%22Neither+*+nor+*+is%22&btnG=Google+Search&aq=f&oq=%22Neither+*+nor+*+is%22&fp=OlAWEoQSgPM approximately 7 million hits], whereas "Neither * nor * are" has [http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=%22Neither+*+nor+*+are%22&fp=OlAWEoQSgPM 16.4 million hits] (some are using "are" for plurals, but not all). So, even though most prescriptive grammar books don't look kindly upon plural verb agreement for "neither" in the case of third person singular nouns, as in "Neither Hamas nor Hizebollah ''are'' ...," if people, by a margin of two to one, ''are'' making such constructions, sooner or later the descriptive grammar books will take notice. [[User:Fowler&amp;fowler|<font color="#B8860B">Fowler&amp;fowler</font>]][[User talk:Fowler&amp;fowler|<font color="#708090">«Talk»</font>]] 22:40, 3 May 2009 (UTC)

**:::::I agree that "6" and "35" (in the sense used here) are each singular, as in "7 is a prime number" or "12 is a composite number". Per Bartleby's and other references, I feel that "neither...nor" should take a singular verb if both nouns are singular, as in "Neither Clara nor John was absent from class". [[User:Proteins|Proteins]] ([[User talk:Proteins|talk]]) 10:06, 5 May 2009 (UTC)

**<s>"Imagine a rectangular area a by b, and consider any common divisor c that divides both a and b exactly." Wikipedia is an encyclopedia, not an episode of Spongebob Squarepants. No sentence in an encyclopedia should start with "imagine."</s>

**:I presume that you are not objecting to the [[imperative mood]] (a staple of mathematics: "Let x be..."), just the verb "imagine". I re-worded this to use "consider" for both: "Consider a rectangular area a by b, and any common divisor c that divides both a and b exactly." Since this ''is'' an encyclopedia, we should both strive to keep our comments less colorful. [[User:Proteins|Proteins]] ([[User talk:Proteins|talk]]) 10:32, 4 May 2009 (UTC)