Thursday, July 26, 2018

DATA -Singular or Plural?

Data is information, usually in the form of facts or statistics that can be analysed.
Such tasks require the worker to process a large amount of data.
This will make the data easier to collect.
Data is usually regarded as an uncountable noun and is used with a singular form of a verb.
2010 is the latest year for which data is available.
The latest data shows that lending fell by 10% in May.
People usually say this data, rather than 'these data'.
Processing this data only takes a moment.
In some formal and scientific writing, data is used with a plural form of a verb, and these data is used instead of 'this data'.
The economic data are inconclusive.
To cope with these data, hospitals bought large mainframe computers.
In other kinds of writing and in conversation, people usually use data as an uncountable noun.
Collins COBUILD English Usage © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 2004, 2011, 2012

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