Jan 26, 2007 09:21
17 yrs ago
English term
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Native in: English 
Works in: Norwegian to English
statistics
English
Bus/Financial
Mathematics & Statistics
I'm proofing a document concerning statistics on earnings. The author is constantly referring to the statistics in the singular and insists that this is correct. Can "statistics" be used like this? For example, "The wage statistics for all employees was published in 2005. This statistics is produced by using the wage statistics for several industrial sections with the following publishing dates..."
Responses
| 4 +14 | See below... |
William [Bill] Gray
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| 5 -2 | this is correct |
Vitaly Kisin
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Responses
+14
13 mins
William [Bill] Gray
Norway
Norway
Native in English
&
English
Norway
Working with words
Native in: English 
Works in: English, Norwegian to English, Danish to English, and 1 more.
Related KudoZ points
:
4
Selected
See below...
Carol, Statistics as a subject will be singular: "Statistics is his best subject".
But what you are talking about are statistics which are countable, and therefore it is correct here to use the plural verb:
"These statistics are correct". In the unlikely event of it being necessary, you may even say that "This one statistic puzzles me".
Note also that you have a "This statistics... " in your sentence, which also should be changed to "These statistics..."
Hope this helps.
But what you are talking about are statistics which are countable, and therefore it is correct here to use the plural verb:
"These statistics are correct". In the unlikely event of it being necessary, you may even say that "This one statistic puzzles me".
Note also that you have a "This statistics... " in your sentence, which also should be changed to "These statistics..."
Hope this helps.
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
Nedra Rivera Huntington
: Yes, definitely. See http://www.open2.net/moreorless/statistics.html
1 min
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Thank you!
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| agree |
Marie-Hélène Hayles
: Yes, this is how I would use it
6 mins
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Thank you!
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| agree |
cmwilliams (X)
: yes, definitely plural here
10 mins
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Thank you!
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| agree |
Alison Jenner
13 mins
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Thank you!
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| agree |
Ken Cox
13 mins
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Thank you!
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| agree |
Peter Shortall
20 mins
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Thank you!
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| agree |
Jack Doughty
26 mins
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Thank you!
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| agree |
Vicky Papaprodromou
37 mins
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Thank you!
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| agree |
kmtext
1 hr
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Thank you!
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| agree |
Richard Jenkins
: Very well explained
3 hrs
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Thanks, Richard.
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| agree |
Sophia Finos (X)
4 hrs
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Thank you!
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| agree |
Can Altinbay
4 hrs
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Thank you!
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| agree |
Alexander Demyanov
: To use a simple "rule of thumb": in this context "statistics" can be substituted by something like "numbers" or "indicators"
5 hrs
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Correct! Thanks, Alexander.
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| agree |
Alfa Trans (X)
2 days 3 hrs
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Thanks, Marju!
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
Comment: "Many thanks for all the input."
-2
14 mins
Vitaly Kisin
Specializes in field
Physicist, huge translation experience
Native in: Russian
Works in: English to Russian, Russian to English, English, and 1 more.
this is correct
It's all right, this is how statistics is used. But:
Wikipedia: The word statistics is also the plural of statistic (singular), which refers to the result of applying a statistical algorithm to a set of data, as in employment statistics, accident statistics, etc.
Wikipedia: The word statistics is also the plural of statistic (singular), which refers to the result of applying a statistical algorithm to a set of data, as in employment statistics, accident statistics, etc.
Reference:
Peer comment(s):
| agree |
lindaellen (X)
: I also googled wiki and it has a good explanation of when to use plural and when to use singular
1 min
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| disagree |
Ken Cox
: it may be (unfortunately) common usage, but IMHO it is not correct\\ not per se: see http://www.askoxford.com/asktheexperts/faq/aboutgrammar/numb...
12 mins
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a number of ... are is equally incorrect but common usage for how long?
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| disagree |
cmwilliams (X)
: the plural should be used here
16 mins
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a number of ... are is equally incorrect but common usage for how long?
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| neutral |
Peter Shortall
: That's a different sense of the word - in the title of the Wikipedia article it refers to the scientific discipline
26 mins
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| disagree |
Richard Jenkins
: "This statistics" is wrong
3 hrs
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| neutral |
Can Altinbay
: Your quoted reference says that "statistics" is plural. I'm not sure if that is what you are saying or not.
4 hrs
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Discussion
NO - the verb has to be plural