Читать книгу Becoming a Data Head - Alex J. Gutman - Страница 54

We should clarify where we stand on a debate you may not have known about or cared existed: Is data one or many?

The word data is actually the plural version of the word datum. (Like criteria—the plural of criterion. Or agenda—the plural of the word agendum.) If we were following proper rules of language, we would say “these data are continuous” and not “this data is continuous.”

Both of your authors have attempted to use the correct phrasing the data are…out in the real world and it's not for us. It just sounds weird. And we're not the only ones who think so. The popular data blog FiveThirtyEight.com³ has argued that its usage is a mass noun, like water or grass.