Data is or are
Hi,
There seem to be a lot of rumours about the usage of data making the rounds.
From what I've gathered so far, it should be treated as plural in formal writing, but the singular form's also becoming widely accepted.
When I look on data as something that can't be counted, it should be singular and if it's something I can indeed count, it should assume the role of a plural noun. However, I'm still a bit confused.
"Collecting so much data is a matter of days rather than hours." Would 'many data' be wrong? For some reason it sounds off to my ear.
Could you help me make the disctinction? Thank you.
Top answer
According to its Latin origin, "data" is the plural of "datum". Traditionally, and still in some formal contexts, it is treated as plural in English. However, increasingly it is treated as uncountable (not singular), to the point that treatment as plural is beginning to look pedantic even in formal writing, at least to my eye.
- According to its Latin origin, "data" is the plural of "datum".
- Traditionally, and still in some formal contexts, it is treated as plural in English.
- However, increasingly it is treated as uncountable (not singular), to the point that treatment as plural is beginning to look pedantic even in formal writing, at least to my eye.
- content=so+many+data%2C+so+much+data&year_start=1800&year_end=2000&corpus=15&smoothing=3
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According to its Latin origin, "data" is the plural of "datum". Traditionally, and still in some formal contexts, it is treated as plural in English. However, increasingly it is treated as uncountable (not singular), to the point that treatment as plural is beginning to look pedantic even in formal writing, at least to my eye. This graph shows that "so much data" now dominates over "so many da
0Ann225From what I've gathered so far, it should be treated as plural in formal writing, but the singular form's also becoming widely accepted.
For me it's not a matter of 'becoming'. For me 'data' is already accepted as a singular — and has been for many decades.
Ann225"Collecting so much data is a matter of days rather than hou
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