Collective nouns, like team , family, class , group , and host , take a singular verb when the entity acts together and a plural verb when the individuals composing the entity act individually. The following examples demonstrate this principle:. The team is painting a mural. The team collectively paints the mural, so the verb is singular. The team are in disagreement about how to paint the mural.
If the collective noun is made plural, it uses a plural verb as in The two families hate each other. So far so good. However, if the members of the group are not acting in unison, it sounds better to use a plural verb.
In the first sentence, every sheep in the flock is doing the same thing: they are all acting as a harmonious unit as they eat grass. In the second sentence, the sheep are panicking, and it is every sheep for themself as they run away.
If the second sentence instead used a singular noun, the sentence would mean that the sheep all collectively ran in the same direction. Although it makes sense to use a plural verb in this case, it still sounds awkward to most people. For this reason, writers will often write a sentence in such a way that they avoid using a plural verb with a collective noun.
For example, it may feel better to say The members of the jury argue with one anothe r rather than The jury argue with one another.
There are a lot of different collective nouns that refer to groups of animals. Many of these collective nouns are memorable because of how silly or strange they sound.
We also use collective nouns to refer to groups of things. We use many collective nouns in everyday speech. Take a look at this list of collective nouns and see if you can think of things you could use these words to refer to. So far, we have focused only on collective nouns. There is another type of noun that likes to bring things together.
A compound noun is a noun that is formed from two or more words. Compound nouns are more versatile than collective nouns and can refer to a single person or a single object. By contrast, collective nouns must refer to more than one person or thing even when used as a singular noun. Looking for more?
Add on to your knowledge about compound nouns with our article on them! Besides this difference, both collective nouns and compound nouns follow the same rules that govern all other nouns. Both can be singular nouns or plural nouns. Both can be concrete nouns or abstract nouns.
Possessive collective nouns can be tricky because they imply that the entire group owns or contributes to something. The choir was singing to a sold-out hall for the third time in a row. The team is or are? The audience is or are? There are times when we use collective nouns that would normally require a singular verb, but because of the context in which they are used, a plural verb fits better. This happens when members of the group stop acting as a cohesive unit and begin acting as individuals.
In this example, the committee are acting as individuals; it is extremely unlikely that they are scratching their heads and glancing at each other in unison, like an odd game of Simon Says. The herd is grazing quietly in the meadow. Now that they have seen the wolf, the herd are bolting off in all directions. It is interesting to note that when a decision needs to be made about whether a collective noun is singular or plural and the answer is ambiguous, American English will almost always default to a singular verb, while British English writers will often choose a plural.
At the top of the list of contentious collective nouns is family. My family is predominantly blond-haired. American English.
My family are predominantly blond-haired. British English. Everyone are entitled to an opinion. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Police are investigating a suspicious death on Reaper Street.
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