• communism@lemmy.ml
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    3 days ago

    “datum” is the singular, but you’re right that it’s not really grammatically plural since you’d say “the data was stolen” not “the data were stolen”. I think the latter would technically also be valid; my interpretation would be that the latter is “countable” plural, so there are specific discrete datums that were stolen.

    • would_be_appreciated@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      1
      ·
      3 days ago

      Confusingly, British English actually does treat nouns like “data” and “government” as plural where American English does not. Even more confusingly, they’re a little inconsistent with it, so you can find published examples of both.