[FFmpeg-cvslog] r17077 - trunk/libavformat/sdp.c

[David Conrad]

On Feb 9, 2009, at 3:37 AM, Luca Abeni wrote:

> Diego Biurrun wrote:
>> On Mon, Feb 09, 2009 at 08:04:20AM +0100, Luca Abeni wrote:
>>> diego wrote:
>>> [...]
>>>>     if (c->extradata_size > MAX_EXTRADATA_SIZE) {
>>>> -        av_log(c, AV_LOG_ERROR, "Too many extra data!\n");
>>>> +        av_log(c, AV_LOG_ERROR, "Too much extradata!\n");
>>> Sorry, but isn't "data" supposed to be plural?
>>
>> The word data has no plural, same as information.
>
> So, English is really a funny language... ;-)
> I've been told by native speakers that "data" is plural, and
> is the plural of "datum" (and I've been corrected for writing
> "data is", because - according to such native speakers - the
> correct form is "data are")


According to my dictionary:

Data was originally the plural of the Latin word : datum, 'something  
(e.g., a piece of information) given.' Data is now used as a singular  
where it means 'information': : this data was prepared for the  
conference. It is used as a plural in technical contexts and when the  
collection of bits of information is stressed: : all recent data on  
hurricanes are being compared.

In other words, "data" is both singular and plural, depending on the  
context. But in general most people simply use "data" as singular  
regardless, and I've not seen "datum" used by anyone but professors.  
And as a native speaker, "many" sounds weird in this context; "much"  
sounds more natural.