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  • Interesting notion; how would one express the notions of "X should be at least 5" or "Y must be no greater than 23"? Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 20:27
  • @supercat - "The value of X must have magnitude of 5 or greater". "The value of Y must not exceed 23". Equality, logical or arithmetic, should not use the "to be" verb either. "X must contain 5", or "X evaluates to 5" or "X has the value 5" or somesuch. If you come across a particularly unclear comment, look for "to be" verbs. I bet that unclear comment uses noting but "to be" verbs. Also note that I wrote the answer above in E-Prime. Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 20:37
  • The second is fine; the first not so much, since -6 has a magnitude of 5 or greater. Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 20:40
  • @supercat - very well. "X must have a signed integer value of 5 or greater". In the US, we would call your "magnitude" "absolute value", which reinforces my point of describing the value of a variable, not the variable-as-value, which arises from the is-of-equality. Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 23:07