Questions or inquiries relating to nouns that refer to a group as a whole.
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
4
votes
2answers
299 views
Does modifying a collective noun with a number make the subject plural?
The word dozen is a collective noun, i.e., singular when we think of them as groups and plural when we think of the individuals acting within the whole. So we might say:
Talking about eggs: "A ...
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 ...
8
votes
15answers
1k views
Simple word related to “a group of intellectuals” or “a group of smart learners”
What could be a good word for "a group of intellectuals" or "a group of smart learners"? Any suggestions of related terms also invited.
16
votes
4answers
2k views
A murder of crows?
I love the subset of collective nouns known as the terms of venery. These are collective nouns specific to a particular group of animals. Some of the more inventive examples are: a murder of crows, a ...
7
votes
7answers
361 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 ...
7
votes
3answers
258 views
Is ‘USAers’ just an ordinary English word today?
I saw the word, ‘USAers’ in the lead copy of Reuter’s news titled ‘Gippered’ in Time magazine (September 6), which says:
“More than 1/3 of USAers say they are worse off under Bam.
Warning-sign ...
2
votes
1answer
761 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.
2
votes
8answers
369 views
Collective noun for “facts”
I'm looking to refer to a group of facts and I'm not sure what the best term to use for them would be. From what I can tell there isn't any sort of standard collective noun for facts, so it's going ...
2
votes
2answers
480 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 ...
