A shorthand English word for 3 multiplied by 4 is:
3 times 4
I am aware that this comes from spoken language as in "we have 3 four times", a version I know from my native language as well. I would like to investigate this word rather than the more formal multiplied by. I am curious as to how the word times may be conjugated in tenses and used in other types of sentence constructions while still keeping it's mathematical meaning.
Can I for example say sentences like the following?
- 3 was timed with 4.
- I will time 3 and 4.
- The times-symbol (or time-symbol or timing-symbol?) is a dot.
Best Answer
Realistically, a native English speaker will treat the verb as if it were
times.What's happening here is that the word "times" is not really a verb. "Times" means "instances of", as in
In the sentence
The subject is "3 times 4", that is, 3 instances of 4. "3 times 4" looks like a sentence, with 3 as the subject, 4 as the object, and "times" as the third-person singular of "time" (and 3 construed as a singular), but that was not originally what it was.
Of course, that would mean we should be saying "1 time 4" and we don't. Ah well, if English were consistent, "fish" would be spelled "ghoti".