The "treating data as singular" one is interesting - "data" as a plural is actually one of my biggest pet peeves because I strongly suspect that realising that it is technically the plural of "datum" is the only reason people started using it like that. The actual concept it conveys is almost always not a plural: it's more like "sand" than "pebbles".
Data has always been plural! Datum is the singular. But actually treating it as plural is mostly a question of where the person speaking/writing is based. Americans treat it as singular, Brits plural. See also, corporations
As a native speaker I refuse to say 'these data' or the word datum. I prefer 'this data' for plural and 'this piece of data' for singular. Yes I know its wrong in some sense, but I think that ship has sailed
From a random internet site:
"
The data are correct.
But most people treat 'data' as a singular noun, especially when talking about computers etc.
For example:-
The data is being transferred from my computer to yours.
And I have to be honest, I've never heard anyone ask for a datum.
"
It could be the case that the scientific pluralization is leaking into regular usage because more people are collectively reading / reporting on scientific studies. Alternatively, Google / Grammarly and similar tools might be suggesting it because it's been seen in their training data / examples.
In any case, IMHO 'datum' is a singular point of information, any reference to multiple points of information would make the noun plural.
I know data is the plural of datum but seeing "these data" instead of "the data" is always so jarring to me. Almost as jarring as seeming anyone use the word "datum" ever.
Is this one of those generational things like "on accident" vs. "by accident" or regional things like "math" vs. "maths"?
Using "data" as if it were plural sounds odd to most English speakers. Some people insist that because it is technically the plural of datum (in Latin anyway) it has to take plural verbs. But what is technically correct is meaningless compared to what sounds correct. What sounds normal compared to what sounds odd is the only thing that really determines if a usage is correct or incorrect (unless writing in a context that mandates following a specific style guide).
"Data is" sounds correct to most people so it is correct, Latin be damned.
Yes! Like 'data' - it's singular ffs, so say 'the data in this paper shows' not 'the data show'. Looking at you TWiV!!
Maybe if it still makes sense semantically to replace 'data' with 'data points', then the plural is ok. However mostly we are talking about a 'wodge' of data, with discussion, caveats, etc, more than a simple list of 'datums'.
The singular of data would be a 1, to be pedantic.
Edit: Information is uncountable, so maybe data should as well be. Is that plural or singular? Yes, you can have sand and a grain of sand, but the grain is hardly sandy. A lone 1 is hardly, excuse the pun, dative.
Depends if I can have 1 code. In common use it is the opposite to data which is the plural. When was the last time you heard (in English) of a singular datum?
That usage would have been fine for the title regardless. Treating 'data' as a plural noun is annoyingly clumsy and should only be done if you're actually considering individual datums and need to refer to the whole. We don't treat 'information' as plural, don't do this to 'data' either.
They may both be accepted, but as your link notes, the singular is avoided by most publications, and I think for good reason. The singular is not logical.
In the case of "information", the word is already in singular form and describes a group, much like the word "flock" is a singular group of birds. On the other hand, "data" is a plural form of "datum". It follows that describing a group of data using a singular construction should require a different word or phrase, such as "data set".
Correct, data is a plural. OP either doesn't know that or is making a more nuanced complaint about stodgy old style guides that used Latin to decide things like this.
While opinion is split on this, these days I don't think you can appeal to strictness alone to justify 'data' being plural, given the way usage has already gone. People (like me) who say 'data is...' are simply using data as a mass noun (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_noun), which seems to be a reasonable direction to be taking the language. I may be influenced by the fact that I usually see 'datum' used to refer to a reference point or marker in some arbitrary space, and thus in my mind is now another word separate from 'data' (albeit with shared etymology). If I had more than one datum, I'd call them 'datums', though I've yet to test how acceptable this would be in a formal setting.
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