“This should be another cumulative criteria.”

Common English Blunders, Devolution toward Simpler, Nouns, Plurals

I saw this in a document for a software project’s business requirements.

Problem:
The noun “criteria” is not singular.

Explanation:
The adjective “another” means an additional, which requires a singular noun.

The noun “criteria” is the plural of the singular noun “criterion”, which means a standard for evaluation.

Many will use “criteria” when what they mean is “criterion”. I believe that this is consistent with my “Devolution toward Simpler” linguistic hypothesis. The noun “criteria” is simpler to say than is the noun “criterion”. In particular, it’s simpler to speak a word that ends with “a” than it is to speak a word that ends with “on” (which has to be held longer than “a”).

Solution:
“This should be another cumulative criterion.”