4 ms·

Is there a generational thing that causes people to say "data is" vs. "data are" in this context? Because to me "data are" sounds so egregiously wrong it takes

by pc86 5y ago

Is there a generational thing that causes people to say "data is" vs. "data are" in this context? Because to me "data are" sounds so egregiously wrong it takes me seconds to focus on anything else.

humanrebar 5y ago
The singular is datum, technically. Though real pedants will also point out that the plural of octopus is octopodes.
analog31 5y ago
I once wrote an article and the editor changed all "data are" to "data is." I asked her if I was being old fashioned and she said yes.
- wahern 5y ago
  > I asked her if I was being old fashioned and she said yes. Google Ngram seems to agree: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=data+is%2Cdata+are&year_start=1900&year_end=2009&corpus=0&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=data+is%2Cdata...
layoric 5y ago
I get stuck on it as well, I'm probably wrong but to me "data" is the collective noun like "team" or "family". This is why I think it sounds wrong to use "Data are" when it is being used as the singular, eg the "data" being clear. If the data was unclear or split you would usually use something else to contextualize the difference. Eg, the time-series data disagrees with our event data.
ask_b123 5y ago
It also took me a few seconds to focus on something else, but not because it sounded egregiously wrong but because it sounded quite cool. Like something you'd find in a bit-sized "fun fact"... "Did you know that data is the plural form of datum and [...]?" and so on :)
astrange 5y ago
Isn’t it a UK vs US thing?
mFixman 5y ago
It's descriptivism vs prescriptivism. Prescriptivist "data" is plural because it comes from the cartographical term "datum". Descriptivists say it's singular because nobody in the 400 years has used the term in an information context while referring to the geodetic datum. This is the equivalent of the Washington Post being snobby by saying that technically a tomato turns it into a fruit salad.

by pc86 5y ago

Is there a generational thing that causes people to say "data is" vs. "data are" in this context? Because to me "data are" sounds so egregiously wrong it takes me seconds to focus on anything else.

humanrebar 5y ago

The singular is datum, technically. Though real pedants will also point out that the plural of octopus is octopodes.

analog31 5y ago

I once wrote an article and the editor changed all "data are" to "data is." I asked her if I was being old fashioned and she said yes.

wahern 5y ago
> I asked her if I was being old fashioned and she said yes. Google Ngram seems to agree: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=data+is%2Cdata+are&year_start=1900&year_end=2009&corpus=0&smoothing=3 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=data+is%2Cdata...

layoric 5y ago

I get stuck on it as well, I'm probably wrong but to me "data" is the collective noun like "team" or "family". This is why I think it sounds wrong to use "Data are" when it is being used as the singular, eg the "data" being clear. If the data was unclear or split you would usually use something else to contextualize the difference. Eg, the time-series data disagrees with our event data.

ask_b123 5y ago

It also took me a few seconds to focus on something else, but not because it sounded egregiously wrong but because it sounded quite cool. Like something you'd find in a bit-sized "fun fact"... "Did you know that data is the plural form of datum and [...]?" and so on :)

astrange 5y ago

Isn’t it a UK vs US thing?

mFixman 5y ago

It's descriptivism vs prescriptivism. Prescriptivist "data" is plural because it comes from the cartographical term "datum". Descriptivists say it's singular because nobody in the 400 years has used the term in an information context while referring to the geodetic datum. This is the equivalent of the Washington Post being snobby by saying that technically a tomato turns it into a fruit salad.