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Data is a Latin plural which is often used as a singular or collective noun. (The Latin singular datum is seldom used, except occasionally in the sciences.)
Those wishing to avoid having to choose between singular and plural can simply recast the sentence using information, facts or some similar noun.
In computer usage, data is almost always singular.
Never use a number as a modifier for data as in "five data"; rather, refer to "five pieces of data."
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