Re: Debian 5 -- "data" is plural.
On Tue, 20 May 2014 17:03:16 +0100
Lisi Reisz <lisi.reisz@gmail.com> wrote:
> (Sorry, Ken. resending correctly to list.)
>
> On Tuesday 20 May 2014 16:00:42 Ken Heard wrote:
> > Please note everybody that the word "data" is plural. The beginning
> > of the last line quoted above should consequently read "all the
> > scientific data *are* backed up." Other posts in this thread make
> > the same error. The singular of data is datum.
>
> This is of course, gramatically correct. But I would argue that,
> although in formal writing it should certainly be treated as a
> plural, in colloquial speech it no longer is. I would also argue
> that emails are colloquial speech not formal writing.
>
> This does not apply in the same way to all of your "group". Where it
> is needful to have both a singular and a plural, as in
> bacterium/bacteria and criterion/criteria it would be perverse to
> make a plural by putting an s on the plural! (Though some people do.)
>
> Language changes, whether one wishes it or not. We no longer speak
> the English of Shakespeare or the King James' Bible. I still
> sometimes catch myself using the present subjunctive in speech. I do
> not think that I am correct to do so. For this usage it is dead.
> Indeed, for all intents and purposes, the imperfect subjunctive is
> dead.
>
> Lisi
>
>
The dictionary agrees with you.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/data
"Both constructions are standard. The plural construction is more common
in print, evidently because the house style of several publishers
mandates it."
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