Questo dato cambia il risultato.

This data point changes the result.

Breakdown of Questo dato cambia il risultato.

• questo: this
• il risultato: the result
• cambiare: to change
• il dato: the data point; fact

Questions & Answers about Questo dato cambia il risultato.

Why is it questo dato and not questa data?

Because dato here is a masculine singular noun.

• questo = this, for masculine singular nouns
• questa = this, for feminine singular nouns

So:

• questo dato = this piece of data / this datum
• questa data = this date

That is an important difference, because data in Italian usually means date, not data in the English sense.

Does dato really mean data?

Yes, but with a small difference from English.

In Italian:

• il dato = a datum / a piece of data
• i dati = data

English often uses data as a mass noun, but Italian commonly treats it as countable:

• un dato = one data point / one piece of data
• due dati = two data points / two pieces of data

So in this sentence, questo dato means this piece of data or this data point.

Why is there il before risultato?

Italian uses definite articles more often than English does.

Here:

• il risultato = the result

Even when English might sometimes say simply changes the result or just changes results depending on context, Italian often keeps the article with a specific noun.

So cambia il risultato is the normal way to say changes the result.