I'm a stickler for data's being plural, but usage guides note that the singular use is increasingly common.
Sometimes I miss having powers... Oh. Oh! I know what this is! This is peer pressure! Any second now you're gonna make me smoke tobacco and--and have drugs!
Anya ,'Showtime'
Natter 69: Practically names itself.
Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.
Ginger - Nov 15, 2011 12:57:23 pm PST #6887 of 30001
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
Amy - Nov 15, 2011 1:01:43 pm PST #6888 of 30001
Because books.
I'm a stickler for data's being plural, but usage guides note that the singular use is increasingly common.
My Webster's 10th Edition from ... 1981, I think ... says "as an abstract mass noun [such as the 'information'] takes a singular verb and singular modifiers."
le nubian - Nov 15, 2011 1:08:48 pm PST #6889 of 30001
"And to be clear, I am the hell. And the high water."
APA (American Psychological Association) style says "data" is plural, I believe. So that's been my bible regarding this issue.
Sheryl - Nov 15, 2011 1:09:41 pm PST #6890 of 30001
Fandom means never having to say "But where would I wear that?"
Timelies all!
Happy Birthday sumi!
Lee - Nov 15, 2011 1:10:15 pm PST #6891 of 30001
The feeling you get when your brain finally lets your heart get in its pants.
Allyson - Nov 15, 2011 1:10:22 pm PST #6892 of 30001
Wait, is this real-world child support, where the money goes to buy food for the kids, or MRA fantasyland child support where the women just buy Ferraris and cocaine? -Jessica
You people were helping. Now you are not.
I need a bonita ! ruling.
§ ita § - Nov 15, 2011 1:31:58 pm PST #6893 of 30001
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.
I would say that current usage supports "the data is augmented" but if you're writing for a technical and pedantic audience you can get away with "the data are augmented". Who's it for?
Ginger - Nov 15, 2011 1:35:44 pm PST #6894 of 30001
"It didn't taste good. It tasted soooo horrible. It tasted like....a vodka martini." - Matilda
New York Times style:
data is acceptable as a singular term for information: The data was persuasive. In its traditional sense, meaning a collection of facts and figures, the noun can still be plural: They tabulate the data, which arrive from bookstores nationwide. (In this sense, the singular is datum, a word both stilted and deservedly obscure.)
AP Style prefers using data as plural, but says it can be treated as a collective noun. Reuters style says singular.
This would be a lot simpler if American English treated collective nouns as plural, like British English.
Steph L. - Nov 15, 2011 1:50:53 pm PST #6895 of 30001
this mess was yours / now your mess is mine
The word "data" is plural for "datum," as PC said.
I know it gets used as a singular all the time, but that's not correct. It drives me batshit INSANE. But if you're writing for a non-technical, non-scientific audience, the plural will sound weird to them.
So -- depends on your readership.
Jesse - Nov 15, 2011 1:55:59 pm PST #6896 of 30001
Sometimes I trip on how happy we could be.
Data is the plural of datum in Latin. We are not speaking Latin. All kinds of Latin plurals are singular in English. OK, agenda is the only one that comes immediately to mind, but there's one, anyway.