millions of peoples' data
or
millions of people's data
for the collective data belonging to millions of collective people
Chat Forum
Pedants' Corner
-
Posted 4 months ago #
-
Oh, hang on, people is the plural so it's the second one.
Posted 4 months ago # -
The first, but why not:
'data belonging to millions of people'
Posted 4 months ago # -
millions of peoples' data
since data is plural, no?
Posted 4 months ago # -
People can be plural or singular.
Lots of individuals in one place are people. Things belonging to them are people's.
The inhabitants of France and Germany are French and German peoples. Things belonging to them are peoples'.
Posted 4 months ago # -
peoples is the plural of people is the plural of person. Clear, eh?
Posted 4 months ago # -
I'd go with IHN's 'data belonging to millions of people'
Both peoples' and people's look a bit weird to me.
Posted 4 months ago # -
People's looks fine because http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People's_Republic
Posted 4 months ago # -
Second one.
Still sounds clunky though.
'Data from millions of people' or 'Data belonging to millions...' depending on exact context.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Are you writing a press release stating that the Government has misplaced/sold millions of peoples' data?
Posted 4 months ago # -
No, but the appearance of one would not surprise me.
I'm writing the copy our website update, we do security systems for data centres (among other things)
I'm going with "Your data centre houses millions of people's personal information", I didn't want data twice in the same sentence
Posted 4 months ago # -
"Your data centre houses millions of people's personal information"
Sounds v.clunky.
How about:
"Your datacentre [it's a single word isn't it?] houses personal information belonging to millions of people"
Posted 4 months ago # -
Both can be correct, but mean subtly differing things.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Surely it should be
millions of persons' data
?Posted 4 months ago # -
Nice IHN, I'll have that! Cheque's in the post
Posted 4 months ago # -
"your data centre houses shitloads of data"
Posted 4 months ago # -
"your data centre houses shitloads of data"
Tut
"your data centre houses shit-loads of data"
Posted 4 months ago # -
The data doesn't belong to peoples it belongs to people so the second one.
Posted 4 months ago # -
"your data centre houses shitloads of data"
Tut
"your data centre houses shit-loads of data"
No, not hyphenated according to urban dictionary:
shitload
meaning quite a few, a bunch, a lot, very many, more than you care to be able to count, more than you can count; a widely used exaggeration of there being far too many of something ~ not to be confused with a boatload or a whole ******* bunch
Posted 4 months ago # -
"your data centrehouses shit loads of data"
Posted 4 months ago # -
people is a singular noun meaning more that one person. The plural in this instance is millions (being the plural of million). So, although the data belongs to more than one person, the use of the word people in the statement is in fact singular; therefore it is apostophe s, not s apostophe. Possibly
(The use of the word peoples would be more appropriate to describing the populations of more than one country in geographical terms)Posted 4 months ago # -
loadsa bods shite eh!
Posted 4 months ago # -
or just do as the Germans do:
Yourdatacentrehousespersonalinformationbelongingtomillionsofpeople
Posted 4 months ago # -
Except Germans lob the verb at the end, so pedantically speaking, it's...
Yourdatacentrepersonalinformationbelongingtomillionsofpeoplehouses
Posted 4 months ago # -
Good work
Posted 4 months ago # -
* is chuffed *
Posted 4 months ago # -
Or Yoda it:
Personal information belonging to millions of people it houses your data centre does
Posted 4 months ago # -
or do what the American's do and and use "a lot of stuff".
Posted 4 months ago # -
Please can we start by defining the dimensions of the corner that we are expected to occupy.
Posted 4 months ago # -
I'm not even sure it is a 'corner' but I'm loathe to describe it as a 'cranny' or a 'nook'.
Posted 4 months ago # -
The data doesn't belong to millions of people. So, to disambiguate:
"Our datacentre holds personal information for millions of people."
Posted 4 months ago # -
I don't think the data belongs to the people anyway, it's just about them.
Posted 4 months ago # -
I don't think the data belongs to the people anyway, it's just about them.
Ah, so that's a different kettle of eels.
Posted 4 months ago # -
But surely, according to the DPA, the data does indeed belong to the people and they, the people, are simply allowing the instition(s) in question to store it at the datacentre/data centre/centre of data and use it only for specific purposes.
Our datacentre holds personal information for millions of people
That's not necessarily correct either, unless the people have asked the institutions to hold the data, i.e. the holding of the data by the institution is a service in itself. In most cases, the institutions have asked the people if their data can be held.
Posted 4 months ago # -
Our datacentre holds information about millions of people?
Posted 4 months ago #
Reply »
You must log in to post.
