LANGUAGE AND USE
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Collective nouns for your collection
Collective nouns are words whose singular form denote a group of people, animals or objects. Some of them are:
flock - herd - school(dolphins) - staff - team - audience - orchestra - family - board - company - class - gang - government - jury.
In English you are free to use the singular or plural verb form, the right choice depends on whether:
You generally use the singular form when referring to quantities if you have BULK in mind:
Collective nouns for your collection
Collective nouns are words whose singular form denote a group of people, animals or objects. Some of them are:
flock - herd - school(dolphins) - staff - team - audience - orchestra - family - board - company - class - gang - government - jury.
In English you are free to use the singular or plural verb form, the right choice depends on whether:
- you consider the group as a whole, in which case you should use the singular form or;
- you consider each individual member, in which case you should use the plural form.
- The jury has reached a veredict (unit)
- The jury were not unanimous in their decision (members)
- The staff are being given further training this week (members)
- Our staff has asked for a meeting with the board (unit)
- The company have managed to lower production costs. You might also find the singular:
- The company has increased the production.
- Chicago Bulls were defeated at yesterday´s game.
Take the following examples into account:
However note that the plural is preferred when you want to emphasize the collective effort of many people in a company:
NB: In American English the nouns government and party are followed by a singular verb.In British English you use either the singular or plural.
When talking about sport teams you should always use the plural form:
You generally use the singular form when referring to quantities if you have BULK in mind:
- $35 is all right!
- Two kilos of ice cream is enough
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