Las matemáticas me cuestan menos cuando estudio con mi amiga.

Maths is less hard for me when I study with my friend.

Breakdown of Las matemáticas me cuestan menos cuando estudio con mi amiga.

• yo: I
• mi: my
• con: with
• me: me

Questions & Answers about Las matemáticas me cuestan menos cuando estudio con mi amiga.

Why is it las matemáticas and not la matemática?

In everyday Spanish, las matemáticas is the normal way to say maths / mathematics as a school subject or area of study.

Even though English often treats math as singular, Spanish commonly uses the plural form:

• Las matemáticas son difíciles.
• Me gustan las matemáticas.

You can sometimes see la matemática, but that is more formal or abstract, often referring to mathematics as a discipline rather than the school subject in ordinary conversation.

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Why does the sentence use cuestan and not cuesta?

Because the subject is las matemáticas, which is grammatically plural.

The verb costar has to agree with its subject:

• La física me cuesta. → singular
• Las matemáticas me cuestan. → plural

So cuestan matches las matemáticas.

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What does costar mean here? It does not seem to mean to cost money.