Most, if not all, of the abstract nouns I've come across are singular.
Examples:
1. My love for him is great.
2. Peace is very difficult to achieve.
3. The temperature of that pot is very high.
So can somebody please explain why out of every abstract noun, data is the one people think is plural? Of course, I realize this is because of the whole "it's plural for datum in Latin" argument, but I see two flaws in this:
1. nobody uses the word "datum," and
2. this is English, not Latin.
Please, I beg of you, prove me wrong. I want to know why this is.
Best Answer
To some extent you are right. 'Agenda' is also a plural, but people nonetheless say 'The Agenda for the Meeting is in the hand-out', not 'The Agenda are in the hand-out'.
However, I don't really see what it has to do with abstract nouns. I am not even sure that 'data' is an abstract noun. Two of the nouns you mention 'love' and 'temperature' have plurals which are still abstract, in any case.
But take an abstract noun like 'vibes'. It seldom has a singular. I have rarely heard anyone speak of a 'vibe'. Are you suggesting we should say 'The vibes is strong that he is the guilty party'.