(Sorry, Ken. resending correctly to list.) On Tuesday 20 May 2014 16:00:42 Ken Heard wrote: > Please note everybody that the word "data" is plural. The beginning > of the last line quoted above should consequently read "all the > scientific data *are* backed up." Other posts in this thread make the > same error. The singular of data is datum.
This is of course, gramatically correct. But I would argue that, although in formal writing it should certainly be treated as a plural, in colloquial speech it no longer is. I would also argue that emails are colloquial speech not formal writing. This does not apply in the same way to all of your "group". Where it is needful to have both a singular and a plural, as in bacterium/bacteria and criterion/criteria it would be perverse to make a plural by putting an s on the plural! (Though some people do.) Language changes, whether one wishes it or not. We no longer speak the English of Shakespeare or the King James' Bible. I still sometimes catch myself using the present subjunctive in speech. I do not think that I am correct to do so. For this usage it is dead. Indeed, for all intents and purposes, the imperfect subjunctive is dead. Lisi -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org Archive: https://lists.debian.org/201405201703.16833.lisi.re...@gmail.com