‘Data’ is singular
I make my living writing dialogue — which, like real speech, is largely ungrammatical. Characters say “gimme” and “gotta” and “woulda.” They speak in fragments. Like this.
So I tend to be forgiving when a writer bends the rules, or uses words differently than I would prefer. Split infinitives? Fine by me. Dangling participles? No objection here. In fact, the only choice that drives me insane is when writers cling to false rules. To me, the shibboleth is the word “data.” This, from the Los Angeles Times:
Another 32 million have some information on file, but the data are too sketchy to create a traditional credit score, he said.
Most reasonable people would say “data is” rather than “data are.” Not only does it sound better, but it makes more sense. In this case, “data” refers to “some information” — it’s not clear what the individual bits of information would even be.
In fact, another article in the Times does treat data as singular:
Information security deals with issues such as who should access the data and how the data is stored, controlled, marked, disseminated and disposed of.
My suspicion is that the official style guide for the LA Times instructs writers to use data as a plural; the second writer broke the rule. “Data is plural” seems to be a common mandate. From The Economist’s style guide:
Propaganda looks plural but is not. Billiards, bowls, darts and fives are also singular. Data and media are plural. So are whereabouts. Teams that take the name of a town, country or university are plural, even when they look singular: England were bowled out for 56.
Why would publications insist on such arbitrary and wrong-sounding usages? Blame Latin. “Data” was originally the plural form of “datum,” which means “something given.” English speakers who use data as a plural noun, in constructions such as “these data” or “data are,” do so with conviction: they know intellectually that data is supposed to be plural, so they use it that way.
Unfortunately, many dictionaries disagree with them. From the American Heritage Dictionary:
[M]ore often scientists and researchers think of data as a singular mass entity like information, and most people now follow this in general usage.
Oxford Dictionary says the singular form is fine for us Yanks, and will probably become the rule in the Old World as well:
[T]here has been a growing tendency to use it as an equivalent to the uncountable noun information, followed by a singular verb. This is now regarded as generally acceptable in American use, and in the context of information technology. The traditional usage is still preferable, at least in Britain, but it may soon become a lost cause. Compare with agenda.
Yes, let’s. Following this logic, which I’ll call the Plurican Mandate –
If the word is plural in its source language, then it must be plural in English.
– the following sentences are correct:
(agendum, agenda)
* Let’s move on to the next agendum.
* The meeting’s agenda are long.
(graffito, graffiti)
* The boy was apprehended while spray-painting a graffito on the wall.
* Bathroom graffiti are particularly vulgar.
(forum, fora)
* This is the appropriate forum for this discussion.
* Due to a server problem, the fora are temporarily closed.
Obviously, I feel pretty strongly that blindly following the rules of the source language is ridiculous, or else I wouldn’t have written this interminable essay. But I’m not going to chastise individual writers for choosing the opposite tack. Different things sound right to different people. As long as no one is an asshole about it, Pluricans and Singlecrats can still get along.
All I would ask of the Pluricans is to get off their high horse. Saying “data are” is like an American putting a “u” in “color,” “honor,” or “valor.” No, it’s not technically wrong, but it’s showy, deliberate and vain.
It’s like over-pronouncing Italian at the Olive Garden. No one is impressed, and frankly, we’re just a little embarrassed for you.
Apparently, I’m not the only person who thinks so. You can find other blog entries on the issue here and here. Credit for the terms Pluricans and Singlecrats goes to Kieran Healy.
Articles
September 24th, 2004 at 5:54 am
After working for many years in television newsrooms, let’s dispell the myth right here. Not everything you hear from tv anchorheads (or read in print) is written by seasoned veterans of the journalistic trade. For the most part, authors of the news are not wordsmiths. They are 20-somethings trying to get their foot in the door at the “lowliest” position in the newsroom. I was 20 something recently so I mean no disrespect. I read AP wires that go across the nation with typos and grammatical inaccuracies. I wish it wasn’t true. But it is.
October 26th, 2004 at 10:02 am
I agree, and it is all as bothersome to me as it is to you! I love the way you’ve reasoned it out. I don’t feel as nebbishy now. Anyway, my particular hifalutin construct is “an historical…” English, my friend, was first a spoken language! And the two forms of this participle are for the function of speaking them aloud with ease. And I have never met a single American who drops the “h” in the word “historical,” so why do so by implication in writing? Exception: People wanting to appear well-heeled. But my greatest gripe, for the moment, is the creative spelling I find for alternate words for “yes” and the like. I just read an AP article wherein “yeah” was spelled, “Yah…” Or when I have read “yea” (as in “yea or nay”) spelled, “Yay!” I mean, come on! Is their day so busy they can’t look in a dictionary? And as words enter the lexicon, why do they not follow the conventional rules of English? By that I mean, why is focusing not spelled “focussing?” Would anyone suggest that “formatting,” for example, be spelled with one “t?” I am not for doting i’s or crosing t’s, are you? And what about confusion over proper usage of “less” or “fewer?” Sorry for the rant, but where other than a writer’s website does a writer have an audience for such things? My wife simply gives me that look as if my passion about all this may be an indicator that I shouldn’t be left alone with the kids. Well, suffice to say, I am not perfect, but I do find it irksome as a professional writer when I see the evidence that rules which make sense are being scuttled while rules which do not are retained, and it seems primarily the realm of journalism to dictate such things, not by qualification, but by volume. But, I guess, if they have the freedom to do as they like, we few wordsmiths do as well, damn it!
November 3rd, 2004 at 11:00 am
F. Link Rapier- you can blame disagreements between Johnson and Webster for a lot of those; focussing, formatting etc. were only standardised around their time, and at the time they couldn’t even decide on how many letters there were in the alphabet!
November 4th, 2004 at 3:05 am
I think:
focussing is correct in English
focusing is correct in American
As the election proved, you Americans are crazy… tap tap tap…
November 4th, 2004 at 8:49 am
Sigh, yes, that election.
As to the -ing form of focus, my fingers tend to type focussing, simply because focusing looks like it would be pronounced “foh-CUE-sing.” But I’m inconsistent, much like the exit-polled American voter.
November 10th, 2004 at 7:13 pm
i feel similarly about the pronunciation of the word forte — as in “cooking is not my forte.” the correct way to pronounce it is FORT — but who the heck can say that without sounding like a twit?
November 11th, 2004 at 4:41 am
Going from what I have seen, the singular form of data is datum and while data should be a plural word, it is acceptable to use as a singular word in English (whether or not it was originally correct).
To really split infinitives, I must pointedly tell you about the Clasically proper plural of ‘octopus,’ even with the ‘us’ ending, the word originally derived from Greek so the plural should be ‘octopodes’ and not ‘octopi’ or ‘octopuses.’ I actually like ‘octopodes’ better.
And the proper plural of enema is actually enemata, the same way ’stigmata’ is not only the title of a movie but the plural or ’stigma’.
While in theory, data as a singular form should be considered a grammatical error, the prevailing use of the word has made it into a singular word. I honestly feel that someone can say ‘the data is’ and speak of the collective data as a single entity (since in theory a single unit of data could just be a letter) and not sound like a total idiot worthy of being thrown in a tank filled with hungry octopodes.
November 11th, 2004 at 10:05 am
After a review of a document, the question came up and I performed a quick “in office” survey. “Data is…” is the accepted form of use, although formally incorrect, it is used extensively in our technical reports. The defining argument in my opinion is having to accept that if you must employ the formal rules strictly, then one should revert to inserting the “u” in color. We are Americans and we blend and adapt words to suit our moods, ethnics, regions, and various other situations. We can be understood, so why not?
Great argument. Convinced me.
November 19th, 2004 at 9:19 am
Okay, what do you all think of the use of ; in dialogue.
For instance:
Cows don’t like wearing shoes; its the heat.
Cows don’t like wearing shoes. Its the heat.
The example spoken by Keith is more grammatically correct, but I find when it comes to dialogue, Frank’s speech looks more natural.
What do you all think?
November 22nd, 2004 at 9:34 am
I love semi-colons and use them more than most people I know. That said, I think it’s a little odd to use them in dialogue. Periods or double-dashes tend to reflect real speech better.
April 7th, 2005 at 3:09 am
mevfu
memu
May 22nd, 2005 at 1:53 pm
I want the image of the plural of enema out of my head now.
May 26th, 2005 at 9:24 am
Pepe Sevedra, I think you mean “I wish it WEREN’T true…” That’s the subjunctive, no? “Wasn’t true” still sounds funny to me but I think it has become popularly acceptable too, a la “data”. I hear “I wish I was…” all the time in songs, for instance, but it makes me cringe. How do the rest of you feel about this case? Is it at all a geographical thing (I’m from Seattle) or an age-related phenomenon or am I just hanging on to old snobby grammar rules???
June 7th, 2005 at 2:11 pm
mmm have to agree with the original blog. was wondering if you had issues with people pronouncing the word foyer like FOY-YAY or worse, FWAH-YAY… or ambience as AHMBIAHNCE. Always struck me as high-and-mighty as well, like “look at me, I can pronounce old French words with a French accent…”
June 13th, 2005 at 3:00 am
Regarding semi-colons: why does someone care? It’s spoken dialogue.
Regarding foyer: I’m looking back and forth at the two offered pronunciations and realization is dawning that Americans must pronounce foyer to rhyme with lawyer. FOY-YAY may sound pretentious to you, but FOY-YER is full on bizarre.
June 13th, 2005 at 6:54 am
I’m guilty of saying both FOY-YAY and AHMBIANCE. But I’ve never understood why some people put a negative connotation on pronouncing words correctly.
June 13th, 2005 at 8:16 am
I grew up rhyming foyer and Sawyer. My guess is that’s the dominant American pronunciation.
June 13th, 2005 at 9:15 am
I say Foy’ - yay, but without the pseudo-french accent behind it. Then agian, I’m in New Orleans — a lot of French influence hangs on here.
June 22nd, 2005 at 10:40 am
Virus & Virii or
Virus & Viruses
and can anyone ever remember the difference between Who & Whom?
July 10th, 2005 at 9:31 am
WHO IS SUBJECTIVE. WHOM IS OBJECTIVE. I PREFER DATA AS A PLURAL, THOUGH SOME PEOPLE EVEN ARGUE THE PLURAL OF DATUM IS DATUMS!
(ANYWAY, I PREFER HIPPOPOTOMI TO HIPPOPOTOMUSES. AFTER ALL, WHO SAYS “ALUMNUSES”? )
July 10th, 2005 at 7:30 pm
A person of your intellectual caliber should easly find his way to caps key. Ah, who am I to judge. I can scarcely post without a typo.
September 30th, 2005 at 11:37 pm
In “Writing for Computer Science” (Springer 2000), Justin Zobel asserts that treating data as singular or plural is correct. It turns out that Professor Zobel is an Australian.
October 5th, 2005 at 4:43 pm
This is awesome! Thanks. You gave me the answer to my question, but what the heck is this? I don’t get the internet sometimes. It is weird. He I love to type, do you? Oh yeah whoo hoo! Bring the heat!
October 18th, 2005 at 9:02 am
[...] JohnAugust.com weblog [...]
October 19th, 2005 at 7:02 pm
Nice essay. Myself I am a strong advocate to the notion that treating “data” as singular is barbaric. I even say sometimes “May I have one biscotto with this” when I order my capuccino at Borders, at which point the barrista gives me a blank stare so I just tell him “just give me one biscotti”.
Now here is something that still bedevils me (mind you my mother tongue is not English): Why do some animals, and especially fish, have the same plural as singular. For example “I cought two salmon” but: “I saw two sharks” or “I am hunting antelope” but “a pack of lions”. I also asked this question at some other “fora” but I got some unsatisfactory answer about Old English etc. Can you offer a better explanation?
November 4th, 2006 at 12:17 pm
“Foyer” rhyming with “Lawyer” makes me cringe.
I was born and raised in California and I never heard the Foyer-Lawyer pronunciation until I visited Oklahoma.
November 5th, 2006 at 11:20 am
I rhyme foyer and lawyer. I grew up in Colorado.
November 13th, 2006 at 4:08 pm
Regarding your use of “data” as singular, you are a dumb-ass… although I am hopeful that you are more adept at other pursuits.
dh
January 8th, 2007 at 6:24 pm
I’m afraid you are incorrect about your idea that “data” can not be used as a singular noun.
From the American Heritage dictionary, the quote says that singular usage is frequent. The OED says the same, not that the plural use is INCORRECT.
February 7th, 2007 at 10:31 am
I pronounce foyer as foyeah (2 syl.), too, my my husband says foyer as lawyer, so it is weird when we are talking about the same thing (like remodeling it). He also says thea-ay-ter, and I never will, so I get used to our variations. I prefer the French pronounciation, since it is original. After all, everybody looks at you like an idiot if you were to prounounce quesadilla with the ‘lls’ not being silent. So tell me…why are we expected to use Mexican Spanish correctly, but not French? Have we become so P.C. that it is wrong to show a proper pronounciation and grammer, but it is okay to use slang, or “fit” in with the masses? I do not believe in Jante Law. I was made to feel guilty because my parents were smart, worked hard and earned a lot of money. Why keep down with the Joneses? I believe that you should pronounce it the way it was intended, if you can and want to, and to not let someone make you feel bad about doing it. Forte is another French word that people mispronounce so often that, only in the last two decades, has the dictionary started recognizing it as being prounced like the musical term for loud/loudly. I say forte like fort, unless, of course I am referring to a musical loudness, then I say for’tay.
February 12th, 2007 at 3:20 am
I am a translator living in Italy, so I run up against problems of the datum/data sort every day. British journals usually insist on the plural usage and the __our (honour) and __re (centre) spelling. Snobbery? No, of course not. What it boils down to is what you are comfortable with, what your peers use and what is accepted where you happen to live. If you use it enough, you will get a ‘feel’ for data as a plural, just like ‘police’. Biscotti? I would be hard-pressed to use it as a singlular, but I live in Italy. Spaghetti? It’s singlular, plural and everything in between. My name? kafazo (as in bozo) in the US, and kafatso (like fatso) in the US. When in Rome…………
March 14th, 2007 at 10:06 am
I really must protest the use of French to justify saying forte is one syllable. Forte is derived from the Italian for “strong” and whether you first came in contact with it through music or French, it is still the same word and it is pronounced for-tay (sic). To say otherwise makes one sound like an ignoramus.
I must also protest a mispronunciation of quesadilla that does not include the “y” sound for the “ll”. You say, “Kay-seh-dee-ya”. And one can hardly claim that Americans stay true to Spanish pronunciation: ever hear anyone talk about “Cal-ee-for-nee-ah” or “la ree-ah-ta”– which for those of you who did not recognize them are the Spanish ways of saying “California” and “lariat.” We also change the spelling, such as canyon for cañon. In Spanish, a-e-i-o-u is pronounced ah (like in father)-ay-ee-oh-oo (and if your teacher is a native speaker he may add the line “el burro sabe más que tú” when reminding you, and this is not complimentary). Also, rr must be rolled on the tongue and not in the throat, ll sounds like y, and ñ sounds like ny in the Russian “nyet”.
Furthermore, I do not think that we can truly claim that any one pronunciation is THE American way to say something, since in nothing else is America’s melting pot as tangible (or should I say audible?) as in our speech. As a military brat, I have moved all over the U.S. and can tell you from experience that there are vast differences in the way that people speak BETWEEN and WITHIN communities. Is the plural of you ya’ll, youse, or you? Is it day-ta, data with the short a of mat, or data with the first syllable like in dot or father? Is it a foy-yuh, a foy-yay, or a foy-yer? I have heard all of the above in the US, and different pronunciations are more common in different places. If we’re going to nitpick, I should mention that all syllables which do no end with a consonent are considered open and should technically be long. But nobody says “day-tay”, “reef-eren-day”, or “medi-ay” for data, referenda, or media, so perhaps all of the rules of grammar are more fluid than we would like to think. There certainly isn’t a moratorium on beginning sentences with conjunctions anymore, although in practice, it is best to use them sparingly.
And while I am ranting, I really do WISH IT WASN’T necessary to point out that subject-verb agreement dictates “it wasn’t” and not “it weren’t” even when preceded by the words “I wish”. Leave the subjunctive to the Europeans– English has phased it out much in the same way that we seldom use different forms of a verb for first, second, and third person speach– although there are a few exceptions, such as the queer third-person-singular-only addition of -es to go.
I feel compelled to add that since language is constantly evolving, it is important to allow some flexibility for words that are “in transition” from the archaic forms and usages to what is au courant. Our forbears protested the addition of French words such as beef and pork to their Olde English, and struggled with how to use the new words– does this apply to the animal all the time, or only when it’s cooked? Such words are entirely commplace now, and no one would make the mistake of saying, “The beef in that field are eating the grass at a tremendous rate”. Or would their mistake be: “The beef … is …”?
For myself, I prefer octupii, the day-ta is, forums, graffitti as both singular and plural, and I most certainly could not live without the phrase “to boldly go …”. Perhaps one day some future linguist will read this page and laugh at us for quibbling over what he feels is a solidly decided subject. But it is unlikely he will judge us for our differences. I mean, students complain of the difficulty, but no one ever thinks to suggest that Chauncer’s spelling is just flat-out abhominably wrong, although my computer’s spell-checker has the gall to suggest that I should remove the h from abhominable!
May 27th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
[...] ‘datum’. Немного погуглив, нашел такую вот статью: ‘Data’ is singular. Однако! Оказывается, правильно говорить “data are” [...]
June 14th, 2007 at 9:12 am
“BJ said: For myself, I prefer octupii, the day-ta is, forums,…”
My preferences as well!
Something that seems to me completely wrong is the treatment of a proper noun as plural. For instance, sometimes I see these combinations: ‘Microsoft are…’, ‘Sears are…’, ‘Dell are…’. This is just plain wrong, and it sounds horrible. If the writer insists on a plural verb, the correct form to use is: ‘Microsoft employees are…’ or ‘Dell executives are…’.
-DA
June 21st, 2007 at 7:12 am
While writing a scientific paper in English (not my first language) I came across the “data is” o “data are” matter. After reading all the opinions and comments posted here, I decided for “….amount of data is…”
However I thought maybe this would be a right forum to ask something that has been bothering me lately:
Why is it that recently everybody says “I´m good” instead of “I’m well”.
Is it now correct to use “good” as an adverb?
I hardly ever hear anybody say “I am well” anymore. (at least on american TV)
March 25th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
Oh, what irony in Pepe Sevendra’s post. “I wish it wasn’t true. But it is.”
That would be “weren’t.”