Bug#1007922: false positive spelling: substract and subtract is both correct
Hi,
Felix Lechner wrote:
> > substract and subtract are both correct
>
> Where did you see that word?
>
> > "Now nonstandard and rare"
>
> Yeah, I'm with Russ. I found "sub-S-tract" in the 1913 Webster's
> Dictionary but no longer in Webster's Second from 1960. (Finally,
> those dusty volumes found some use.) I have never heard, or seen, that
> form of "sub-tract," but let's give others a chance to chime in.
Writing "substract" instead of "subtract" seems to be a German thing.
I also tend to write "substract" instead of "subtract". I suspect that
this is because in German there are a lot of binding "s" in compound
words where it eases pronounciation. And indeed, pronouncing
"subtract" without "s" feels a lot more difficult than "substract" for
me. Actually I think we have the same issue in German itself: I would
say "Substrahieren", but correct is "Subtrahieren".
Another reason might be the similarity to words like the German
"Substrat" or the English word "substrate" (which both mean the same).
Regards, Axel
--
,''`. | Axel Beckert <abe@debian.org>, https://people.debian.org/~abe/
: :' : | Debian Developer, ftp.ch.debian.org Admin
`. `' | 4096R: 2517 B724 C5F6 CA99 5329 6E61 2FF9 CD59 6126 16B5
`- | 1024D: F067 EA27 26B9 C3FC 1486 202E C09E 1D89 9593 0EDE
Reply to: