I hear a significant number of English-second-language speakers, English-first-language children, and less educated English-first-language peers, say

> x **equals to** three times sine alpha

For example, when reading `x = 3 sin(α)`.

I read this "x equals three times...", and I believe that to be the correct pronunciation and hear it more commonly among mathematicians in formal settings and among well-educated/well-read English-first-language speakers.

So why do so many other people pronounce the equals sign as "equals to"?

I am genuinely interested in the origin of this ever-more pervasive (mis?) pronunciation.