Korean Job Discussion Forums

[ChopChaeJoe]

Why do we say things like "There is data....." instead of "there are data....?"

[CBP]

It's a formality that has slurred into a less awkward albeit incorrect form. But in formal published writing, you'd want to say "There are data ..." when referring to a group of information. In the singular it's "datum," but rarely would we refer to one piece of information. When you attach "data" to other words, you would say, for example, "data results" or "data uploads." Always in the plural, which implies that data is plural.

On the other hand, "everybody" is treated in the singular, although it refers to more than three people. We don't say "Where are everybody?" Instead we say "Where is everybody?"

But how to explain the difference in treatment between data and everybody, I don't know.

[CBP]

P.S. The word "data" might be one of many evolving English words, where the gap between the formal/correct use of the word and the everyday usage is beginning to narrow. So you might find examples in publications of data being used in the singular.

[green_bean]

They're called "collective nouns."

Some nouns denote a unit and take singular verbs (class, committee, family, etc.).

Some words that are plural in form become collective nouns and take singular verbs when the group is regarded as a unit. For example:
A thousand bushels is a good yield. (a unit)
A thousand bushels were created. (individual items)

More to the point:
The data is sound. (a unit)
The data have been collected. (individual items)

It's in the 2005 AP Stylebook.

[ChopChaeJoe]

But you would never say, "a data...." as you would say a family, a committee, a thousand bushels.

[CBP]

Right, you'd never say "a data" or "a datum," the latter of which is now considered obsolete. It's like with "dice," which these days is apparently acceptable as referring to one piece or many pieces. (I'm using Swan's Practical English Usage.) But despite what the honorable Swan says about die/dice, I'm inclined to believe that most people would find it awkward referring to one die as "a dice." When I was playing Backgammon recently, I couldn't quite bring myself to ask for the "die" that I flung across the room. Nor could I ask for the one "dice." So I side-stepped the issue and said, "Just give it to me already."

About "data," Swan says "data can be used either as an uncountable noun (this data is ...) or as a plural (these data are ...), with no difference in meaning." If this means I have a choice, then I choose to keep it in the singular: "This data predicts that pigs will fly in the near future."

But what do I know? I'm still learning how to conjugate verbs!