• pendingdeletion@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      5 months ago

      Not really, no… “times” is not a verb. You can multiply 2 by 2, and you can express that as “2 times 2”, but it is not correct to “times 2 by 2”.

        • pendingdeletion@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          5 months ago

          Not sure what you think the relevance of a Spanish-English translation of the word “multiplying” has here… but nonetheless, you can see the correct usage of the word “multiply” versus the word “times” in my explanation above. For further clarification I would suggest a real dictionary, like Oxford, Meriam-Webster, etc.

          I’m sure plenty of people will continue to make the mistake and it will become an accepted variant, though I wouldn’t consider it to be the correct usage of the word. Similar to the word “irregardless”, it’s a word, it’s used incorrectly in place of “regardless” very often, and therefore is an accepted variant. It’s just not the correct word to use. This is why I offered you my initial correction.

          • 520@kbin.social
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            edit-2
            5 months ago

            Not sure what you think the relevance of a Spanish-English translation of the word “multiplying” has here

            It’s a more authoritative answer than a random comment by a grammar nazi.

            Also the dictionaries you mentioned aren’t great about including common informal language, which is what ‘times by’ is.