Add an ":ordinal" and ":over" property for speaking fractions and maybe add other properties?
@NSoiffer is already working on this.
Since May 31, 2026.
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Description
One of the ways you can speak a common fraction is as an ordinal. For example "2 thirds". MathCAT has rules as to when to do this (numerator less than 10 and denominator between 2 and 20).
ClearSpeak has a number of preferences that were designed for authors to control speech. "Ordinal" and "Over" are two of them for fractions. For elementary math, something like $\frac35 + \frac{1}{10}$ is likely better read as "three over five plus 1 over 10" then hearing "fifths" and "tenths". Allowing the author to state this seems good.
At the moment, we don't have a core concept for this other than the generic "fraction" concept. To me, these two seem like properties.
There are maybe other properties (or concepts) that people think should be added. For people's benefits, below are all the ClearSpeak preferences (copied from MathCAT). The default value ("Auto") follows the name, and the alternative values are listed in the comments (after the #).
CapitalLetters: Auto # SayCaps or use pitch
AbsoluteValue: Auto # AbsEnd, Cardinality, Determinant
Fractions: Auto # Ordinal, Over, FracOver, General, EndFrac, GeneralEndFrac, OverEndFrac, Per
Exponents: Auto # Ordinal, OrdinalPower, AfterPower
Roots: Auto # PosNegSqRoot, RootEnd, PosNegSqRootEnd
Functions: Auto # None
Trig: Auto # TrigInverse, ArcTrig
Log: Auto # LnAsNaturalLog
ImpliedTimes: Auto # MoreImpliedTimes , None
Paren: Auto # Speak, SpeakNestingLevel, Silent, CoordPoint, Interval
Matrix: Auto # SpeakColNum, SilentColNum, EndMatrix, Vector, EndVector, Combinatorics
MultiLineLabel: Auto # Case, Constraint, Equation, Line, None, Row, Step
MultiLineOverview: Auto # None,
MultiLinePausesBetweenColumns: Short # Long
Sets: Auto # woAll, SilentBracket
MultSymbolX: Auto # By, Cross
MultSymbolDot: Auto # Dot
TriangleSymbol: Auto # Delta
Ellipses: Auto # AndSoOn,
VerticalLine: Auto # SuchThat, Divides, Given
SetMemberSymbol: Auto # Belongs, Element, Member
Prime: Auto # Angle, Length
CombinationPermutation: Auto # ChoosePermute
Bar: Auto # Bar, Conjugate, Mean
To find out more about the meaning of the rules, see ClearSpeakRulesAndPreferences.docx.
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