Speaking English in China, we say “order delivery” or “order food”. I know it’s not environmentally friendly, but it’s so cheap and convenient, we get it every day, often from different restaurants for different people in the household, since we have different tastes.
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Is “data” singular or plural?
- Singular
- Plural
0 voters
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Isn’t the singular word for data, datam?
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I think strictly singular is datum.
In my mind, data is when I’m talking about the whole collection but data are when I’m talking about the things collected.
Although, I kinda have a similar problem with information, since my language works differently.
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“Datum” is the singular form, but it’s largely archaic, and ultimately people use “data” both ways (sometimes treating it as plural and sometimes as singular). Even I have used it both ways, and it varies among my colleagues. I think I’ve even been inconsistent within a single paper before, with sentences like “The data shows …” and then later “The data are …”
Ultimately, it’s not such an important issue, even in formal publications, unless you have a very militant editor that insists upon a certain standard.
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Data is singular and plural.
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I think @Atorrante hit the nail on the head.
It’s kind of like the word “moose” which is both the singular and plural form.
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I’ve always thought of (the English usage of) data as an uncountable noun rather than singular or plural.
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I think it’s plural when talking about multiple instances of a “datum”, but in general usage it is uncountable, like “rice” or “water” (although “water” is tricky, it can also be singular, as in “what is the name of the water running through your village”, with plural waters, as in e.g. “territorial waters”).
I don’t think it’s ever singular.
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Come on guys. I said “Is ‘data’ singular or plural?” not “Are ‘data’ singular or plural?”
Seriously though, I feel that the best judge of correctness, in the long run, is what people actually tend to say. It’s interesting how the poll is almost the complete opposite of the trends.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q="data%20is","data%20are"
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Is ‘water’ potable?
Is ‘rice’ singular or plural?
Is see no problems here 
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Is this an expression? I don’t know it.
https://pics.me.me/you-shouldnt-just-im-a-lie-there-garfield-rebel-cool-2651376.png
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The “is” conjugation is consistent with uncountable nouns. (As I just noticed @Vsotvep already pointed out)
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Hmm, maybe I’m projecting Dutch…
What definitely does work is “Can I have a water, please?”
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Yes, of course. I was joking there, in case it didn’t come across.
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Jokes shall be met with a meticulous and seriously pedantic dissection of whatever the topic is you bring into this thread.
Posting is at your own risk.
No money back for found inconsistencies.
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This is a statement, not a question: things are dire when our likes are not consumed in the meme thread. Collective effort is running low.
(I’m almost out of likes, please don’t start a great discussion now y’all)
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I’ve already completely run out of likes for today.
So, I simply bow to you all above.
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What is the plural form of octopus
- octopuses
- octopi
- octopodes
- other
0 voters
I’m surprised it’s not octopusses but octopuses… Why does the s not double?
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