The singular of data in Latin is datum, but in English it’s data. It is a mass noun where it’s not easy to break it into individual, countable pieces. Something like sand is almost never represented in ite plural form of sands.
The singular of data in Latin is datum, but in English it’s data. It is a mass noun where it’s not easy to break it into individual, countable pieces. Something like sand is almost never represented in ite plural form of sands.
I think you’re confusing this due to the common incorrect use of “that” in relation to data as if it’s something singular, id est, “Could you please provide me that data?”
Technically this is grammatically incorrect (and yes before you ask, I say “those data”), but I’ve come to understand that people actually mean “data set” when they say this, and are just omitting that word from the sentence.
Since that is all that’s needed to have everything correctly agree again, I can just fix it in my head when I hear it so that my brain doesn’t explode.
I really dont think I am. I really do think it’s a mass noun.
I’m not sure why you think that. By definition (which you even gave in your original post) that would mean that data are something that can’t be broken down into individual, countable units.
But there is a smallest unit, which is called a bit. Data can be broken down into smaller, countable units. So the word doesn’t fit the common definition of what a mass noun is.