• Ephera
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    96
    ·
    2 months ago

    As Wiktionary puts it:

    The word data is more often used as an uncountable noun with a singular verb than as a plural noun with singular datum.

    It’s like “hair”. You can hold a single ‘hair’, you can also hold three hairs. But if you’re looking at an entire mane, you ain’t counting, so it’s referred to as “hair” again.

    • AccountMaker@slrpnk.net
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      17
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      Yeah, but for example, IEEE conference paper templates explicitly state “The word ‘data’ is plural, not singilar”. So if you use it with a singular verb you will receive this post in an email and you can only say thank you and change it.

    • averyminya@beehaw.org
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      8
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      2 months ago

      The piece of data and the data overall suggest that…

      Over categorization is a lie that only causes more problems. Stop the forcing of categorizing things. Just let things exist.

  • LynneOfFlowers@midwest.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    13
    ·
    2 months ago

    I guess I tend to use data as a mass noun when referring to computer data (“there’s a lot of data on that drive”) and as a regular noun when referring to data in the scientific sense (“these data show xyz”)

  • UraniumBlazer@lemm.ee
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    arrow-down
    2
    ·
    2 months ago

    I’m kinda getting the urge to lick between this guy’s front teeth just to see what it feels/tastes like.