Why is gravity 9.8 m/s^2 but people say its 9.8 m/s

I'm no mathematician but how do you just drop S^2 to S and still have 9.8 for both?

Gravity accelerates objects towards the Earth at 9.8m/s^2

Anyone who says it is 9.8m/s is wrong. Since 9.8m/s is a velocity, not an acceleration.

The second one is obviously incorrect, however not all acceleration due to gravity is 9.81 ms^-2, this is just the acceleration due to gravity on Earth and this acceleration would only be observed in a vacuum as well. The second one is just wrong, unless it's referring to an object's velocity on Earth after 1 second of freefall in a vaccum.

Whatever "people say" is wrong. The *acceleration due to gravity* on earth is 9.8 m/s^2- that is, speed increases 9.8m/s per every 1 second. You can't just drop the ^2.

Saying this is comparable to saying a distance of 9.8m is the same as a velocity of 9.8m/s, because we can multiply them both by s. :(

it's wrong to say 9.8m/s !