'Times' or 'Times By'

Curious Scot

When reading multiplication of numbers aloud, do you say "X Times Y" or "X Times by Y"?
I have noticed that the latter is used a lot in Countdown.

Personally, I would say "X Times Y".

Yakuza

For me, "times" all day long. I've done a good few online tutorials (with a mathematical element) over the years (with English tutors) and almost to a man / woman they say "times by". I thought it sounded odd, but I used "divided by" when talking about division, or sometimes I say "multiplied by" when talking about multiplication, so who am I to judge?

looksee

Times is grammatically correct - 6 times 4 is another way of saying 6, 4 times, either way it is 24. 'Times by' doesn't work, but 'multiplied by' does. They are different parts of speech. In the same way you could not say 6 multiplied 4, it has to be 'multiplied by'.

Yakuza

I agree, but "times" seems to have crept into usage in the classroom as a verb (as in, you "times" something by something else). Good luck putting that genie back in the bottle.

I'm pretty sure in India, they say "X into Y" when multiplying X by Y - now that just seems odd!

New Home

I either use "X" times "Y", or "X" (multiplied) by "Y".

MathsManiac

X times Y - yes
X multiplied by Y - yes
X by Y - yes
X times by Y - Nooooooooooo!

Curious Scot

MathsManiac wrote: »

X times Y - yes
X multiplied by Y - yes
X by Y - yes
X times by Y - Nooooooooooo!

It's a pity that they don't do it on Countdown!