James Baquet
Mark is chatting with his classmate Ming in the common room of their dorm.
Ming: Hi, Mark. I’ve got a question.
Mark: Shoot!
Ming: Today, my teacher said “the data is,” like it was singular. But it’s plural, isn’t it? One datum, two data?
Mark: Technically, you’re right. But we often use it more like an uncountable.
Ming: I don’t follow.
Mark: If you take any sentence that uses the word “information” and substitute “data” instead, it would be acceptable.
Ming: Oh! So when my teacher says “the data is,” it’s like saying “the information is.”
Mark: That’s right. But in formal speech and writing, you’ll still hear “data” used as a plural: “These data show that...” and so on.
Ming: Got it! Sometimes plurals are weird.
Mark: Yes, they are. There are all the usual irregular plurals — men for man, children for child, and so on — but there are others that can really get crazy.
Ming: Can you give me another example?
Mark: Take the words ending in -us, like “cactus” or “octopus.”
Ming: I learned that, because those are Latin words, the plurals would be “cacti” and “octopi.”
Mark: Technically true. But you said it like “KAKT-eye.” Some purists use “KAKT-ee.”
Ming: Purists?
Mark: People who want to follow the rules strictly, in this case the rules of Latin pronunciation. But a lot of people use “cactuses,” and even just “cactus.”
Ming: “I saw some cactus?”
Mark: Right, like deer or fish.
Ming: I see. And the same with octopus?
Mark: Uh-huh. There’s another word, “alumnus.”
Ming: A person who has graduated for a school?
Mark: Right. And that one gets messed up all over the place. It’s so bad that some people have started using “alum” for the singular and “alums” for the plural.
Ming: Wow!
Mark: I know. Here’s another weird group: words where the plural “s” goes in the middle.
Ming: For instance?
Mark: One passerby, two passersby.
Ming: Aha! I knew about hyphenated words, like one son-in-law, two sons-in-law.
Mark: But there’s an explanation. The word is made up of a noun plus a preposition.
Ming: “They passed by the door.”
Mark: Yes. So they are passers, and the “by” comes after.
Ming: I guess that makes sense. Got one more word?
Mark: Sure! Did you know that “news” — which is now uncountable, like “data” and “information” — used to be a plural?
Ming: You’re kidding!
Mark: Yup. In fact, it originally referred to new things, not just information.
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