Tagged Questions

0
votes
0answers
92 views

“India have won” vs. “India has won” [duplicate]

I would like to know when to use singular or plural verb agreement when talking about a country. E.g., India have won the match. India has won the match. Which statement is grammatical? ...
0
votes
0answers
105 views

A majority of those whose family or families

Is "family" both plural and singular? or would I have to say families for the plural form. for example, which of these is the best option: "A majority of those whose family were unaware of their ...
3
votes
2answers
116 views

When ordering coffee, do you say “two milks” or “two milk”?

I've already searched the site if this question had been asked before however I didn't find anything related to my question. Every time I order coffee some people sort of correct me by saying 2 milks ...
1
vote
2answers
522 views

Is “fireworks” singular or plural?

As I understand, when referring to a single concept, one would use "ham and cheese is", but "fruit and nuts are". Now, can one have a single firework, or is/are fireworks simultaneously singular and ...
0
votes
2answers
440 views

If collective nouns use the plural verb form, are they plural in other contexts too? [closed]

According to Wikipedia, in British English, it is generally accepted that collective nouns can take either singular or plural verb forms. How does this affect their property of being singular or ...
0
votes
0answers
14 views

“Acme Ltd provide” vs. “Acme Ltd provides” [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Are collective nouns always plural, or are certain ones singular? I'm a little confused if I should be using provide or provides in the following situation. Acme ...
2
votes
2answers
230 views

Singular or plural verb after collective noun initialism

Are companies/groups of people considered plural? What about their initialisms? I'm unsure if I should use have (plural verb) or has (singular) in the following situations: The Federal Bureau ...
9
votes
3answers
1k views

Collective nouns and subject-verb agreement: general rule or arbitrary?

A newspaper ran this headline recently: (1) Police crack down on IAC protesters. [emph added] Why did it not read: (2) ? Police cracks down on IAC protesters. I have found instances of ...
2
votes
1answer
751 views

Collective noun “police” — singular or plural? [closed]

A newspaper ran this headline today: Police crack down on IAC protesters. Isn't the following more appropriate? Police cracks down on IAC protesters.
1
vote
1answer
404 views

Pronouns for collective nouns (British and American)

British and American English differ in the way they conjugate verbs for collective nouns: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=877. For example, an American would probably say "China is winning" ...
0
votes
2answers
146 views

Destroy or Destroys [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Is a company always plural, or are small companies singular? I came across a mocked up newspaper article earlier and there was a discussion about whether the following ...
2
votes
2answers
11k views

Is “group” singular or plural? [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Is a company always plural, or are small companies singular? When I'm referring to a group of multiple things, should it be considered singular or plural for the ...
7
votes
7answers
360 views

Are there meta-plurals beyond “peoples”?

The plural of "person" is "people". The plural of "people" is "peoples". Person-people-peoples is the only sequence like this that I know of, but I'm looking for another. (The equivalent question ...
3
votes
6answers
3k views

In special cases, can you use “one such family are” vs. “one such family is”?

Is it correct to say "one such family are..." as opposed to "one such family is..." in some circumstances? Say, for instance, as used in this article on gene families: [...] One such family are ...
1
vote
3answers
263 views

“Much feces” vs. “many feces”

I want to know which word I should use in the following sentence: How many/much feces does a human produce in one year? I found that both versions exist on the Internet. Any help would be ...
6
votes
4answers
3k views

Which is correct: “All the media is” or “all the media are”?

I think I know that media is a plural word. So then which one is correct, "All the media is" or "All the media are"? When you search Google, both seem to appear at the same ...
2
votes
2answers
474 views

Conjugating verbs for nouns referring to groups of people [duplicate]

Possible Duplicate: Is staff plural? Frequently when reading tech articles, I see sentences like "Microsoft have released ..." or "Apple have announced ...". This seems wrong to me because ...
3
votes
2answers
581 views

What is the plural of “copy” when applied to the output of copywriters?

If a Copywriter produces several articles for printing, what are his works collectively known as? I feel the answer is not copies as this would indicate it is several articles reproduced from an ...
22
votes
8answers
11k views

Are collective nouns always plural, or are certain ones singular?

I'd say Microsoft have a way of bending the rules and I know that McLaren have won the championship. While this sounds strange, I believe it is correct English (sorry, I'm not native). But when it's ...