Confused by plural nouns? Blame Latin.
We don鈥檛 tend to think of noun plurals as particularly controversial. One cat, many cats; one participle, many participles. Pretty straightforward. But, as my daughter learned when she was studying for a grammar exam recently, there are many about which reasonable people disagree.
鈥淵our data is all wrong.鈥� That was one of the sentences she had to assess. Is the singular verb all wrong here, too? According to my daughter鈥檚 grammar text, it is incorrect. One must say 鈥淵our data are all wrong,鈥� since data is the plural form of datum, which meant 鈥渟omething given鈥� in its original Latin and became 鈥渁 piece of information鈥� in English. One datum, many data 鈥� the data all point one way. Except that the data points the opposite way, too. In most disciplines, except for the sciences, data has become a mass noun, a noun denoting something that can鈥檛 be counted, like information, gold, or water. It doesn鈥檛 make sense to say 鈥渉e found 20 golds鈥�; you have to say 鈥渉e found 20 pieces of gold.鈥� (Lucky him!) It鈥檚 fine, then, to go with 鈥渕uch of the data is鈥� rather than 鈥渕any of the data are,鈥� unless you are trying to get published in The Journal of Chemical Physics.
English speakers often run into trouble when grappling with such Latin plurals. Alumnus, for example, is a rare noun that has 鈥� mostly 鈥� kept its Latin gender inflections in English. An alumnus is a male graduate of a school, or a former member of an organization. An alumna is a female one. Alumnae refers to two or more women, and alumni to a group of mixed gender (whether that鈥檚 10 men and one woman, or 1,000 women and one man).聽
Problems arise either when we just don鈥檛 remember these forms, or when we search for a gender-neutral word. Many universities try to avoid 鈥渙fficial鈥� speech that might marginalize women 鈥� the 鈥渇reshman class鈥� becomes 鈥渢he frosh鈥� or 鈥渢he first years.鈥� They want a word that signals 鈥淚 graduated from this school,鈥� not 鈥淚 am a person of a particular sex who graduated from this school.鈥� Unfortunately, the word often chosen is alumni. When I see a car window sticker that boasts 鈥淯W alumni,鈥� I always wonder if the vehicle belongs to a couple who met at college. Even odder are T-shirts printed with 鈥淧aul Smith College alumni.鈥� Are these shirt-wearers making a statement about 鈥渃ontaining multitudes鈥� like Walt Whitman, or is alumni just being used incorrectly? Perhaps, more charitably, it is a nod to the whole group of alumni, to which the shirt-wearer belongs. In any case, it is confusing and leads to people saying things like 鈥淚 am an alumni of Georgetown.鈥�
Luckily there already is a perfectly good gender-neutral alternative, which has been used since the 19th century: one alum, two or more alums.
