0

Here's the sentence in question:

A team of curators, educators, technicians, and multimedia designers HAVE/HAS been hard at work answering the question.

Which is the correct verb?

I would say "has" if the subject is "team," but the added description of those making up the team confuses me. Is there a definitive answer for this?

Improve this question
1
  • Add a linguist to the team.
    – John Lawler
    Commented Nov 10, 2021 at 0:01

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
-1

Both answers could be correct, due to differences in English dialects.

The noun which determines whether you should use plural "have" or singular "has" is in fact "team." "Of curators, educators, technicians, and multimedia designers" is a prepositional phrase, and therefore modifies "team" and does not influence the verb. However, the collective noun "team" can be both singular and plural.

In the United States, collective nouns like "team" are considered singular nouns. This means "has" is correct.

In the United Kingdom, collective nouns are considered plural nouns. This means "have" is correct.

Improve this answer
1
  • 2
    Correction: both possibilities are found in British English, depending on whether the speaker is thinking of the team as a unit that works, or as a collection of members who work.
    – Colin Fine
    Commented Nov 9, 2021 at 23:01

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .