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This joke [https://hachyderm.io/@inthehands/111511784701760258] and @AdrianRiskin’s reply [https://kolektiva.social/@AdrianRiskin/111511809273857650] got me thinking:
What •linguistic• pitfalls commonly trip up students / beginners / newcomers in software, math, and stats? I’m looking for ground-level stuff, not esoterica, e.g.:
matrix / matrices
vertex / vertices
parenthesis / parentheses
“code” is a mass noun, no plural
“data” is a mass noun when it refers to bits/bytes (but “datum” still exists in stats/science contexts, tricky one)
What else?
@inthehands @nicklockwood That semantics is a singular word, like physics.
@pyrtsa @nicklockwood
It’s a tricky one. Merriam-Webster, Oxford English, and American Heritage all say that it can take either a singular or plural verb, though they all color that analysis slightly differently.