• merc@sh.itjust.works
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    1 year ago

    Data is like water, it’s a noncount noun.

    You say “how much”, not “how many”. E.g. “how much data is there in the database” not “how many data are there in the database?”

    You say “little” not “few”: e.g. “We don’t know, there is only a little data available” not “we don’t know, there are only a few data available”

    You say “all” not “each” or “every”: “All the data has been verified” not “Each of the data has been verified” or “Every datum / Every one of the data has been verified”

    And then there’s counting. Can you imagine someone saying “I have 80 data in my spreadsheet”? Or “I have 80 datums in my spreadsheet”?

    Maybe this is a recent evolution of the language, but I don’t know anybody who uses the count noun version of these. I don’t know anybody who uses the world “datum”. Instead, when someone is talking about one value, they might talk about a “piece of data”, which is similar to how you talk about other similar non-count nouns: “a piece of information” or “a piece of advice”.