Lesson 8: Collective Nouns
Collective nouns provide a way to refer to a group as a single unit. In fact, âgroupâ is an excellent example of a collective noun; when you refer to a group, you are referring to all members of that group at once as a single unit. Other collective nouns youâll run into frequently are: team, data, network, family, and company.
Because the collective noun is being treated as a single unit, use singular verbs with it.
â Correct:
The group is going to the event.
The network of servers is offline.
â Incorrect:
The group are going to the event.
The network of servers are offline.
When you follow a collective noun (ânetworkâ) with a prepositional phrase that defines whatâs in the collective noun (âof serversâ), it can be tricky to remember to use the singular verb (âis offlineâ instead of âare offlineâ). Your ear may cling to the last word it heard (âserversâ) and think âservers is downâ sounds wrong. But âserversâ is the object of the prepositional phrase, NOT the subject of the sentence, and itâs the subject of the sentence that the verb has to agree with.
If you see a prepositional phrase, take a look at what the sentence would look like without it, and youâll have an easier time figuring out whether to use the singular or plural. For example:
The network of servers is down.
You might wonder, shouldnât it be âservers are downâ? Letâs remove the prepositional phrase:
The network [of servers] is down -> The network is down.
Could I say âThe network are down?â No! The subject is ânetworkâ, not âserversâ (âserversâ is the object of the preposition), and the verb must agree with the subject, so it should be âThe network is down.â So âThe network of servers is downâ is correct.
Of course, English is crazy, so thereâs an exception: if you are putting the emphasis on the individuals in a group, you can use the plural verb. For example:
After the event, the Tech Content team were trying to find their cars.
This is the equivalent of saying:
After the event, the members of the Tech Content team were trying to find their cars.
In this case, it makes sense to use the plural verb, because using the singular verb would make it sound like the cars are owned by the Tech Content team, not by the individuals on the team:
After the event, the Tech Content team was trying to find its cars.
However, I recommend you avoid this awkwardness entirely and refer to the individuals by adding âmembers ofâ whenever youâre in this situation.
Removing the prepositional phrase to help you determine whether to use the singular or plural verb is similar to a trick you can use when youâre trying to figure out whether to use the subject or object version of a pronoun, such as âand Iâ or âand meâ.
For example:
Sam and I went to the market.
He gave the feedback to Sam and me.
The first sentence is pretty easy. Get rid of âSam andâ, and youâll quickly see that âI went to the marketâ is correct, not âMe went to the market.â So you know itâs âSam and I went to the market.â
But shouldnât it also be âSam and Iâ in the second sentence? If you pull out âSam andâ again, you can try it both ways:
â Correct:
He gave the feedback to me.
â Incorrect:
He gave the feedback to I.
Why? Because a prepositional phrase takes an object, not a subject, so you must use the object form âmeâ. Therefore, âHe gave the feedback to meâ is the correct sentence, and if you add âSam andâ back in to the sentence, you get âHe gave the feedback to Sam and me.â
These little mental tricks of pulling out extra information from the sentence to get down to the core components of subject, verb, and object can be very useful for figuring out whether to use the singular vs. plural of a verb and the subject vs. object of a noun.
Summary
Collective nouns provide a way to refer to a group as a single unit. Typically, use the singular verb form with collective nouns. The exception is when you want to differentiate amongst the members of the group, but because this can be subtle and confusing, itâs usually best to write around this by adding âmembers ofâ before the collective noun or âmembersâ after it.
Additional resources
http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/collectivenoun.htm
đAssignment
- Write two sentences using collective nouns with singular verbs.
- Write one sentence using a collective noun with a plural verb, followed by an explanation of why the plural makes sense instead of the singular in this context.
- Provide an alternative version of the sentence you wrote in question 2 that avoids using the collective noun as the subject when you want to use a plural verb (e.g., insert âmembers ofâ before the collective noun or insert âmembersâ after it).