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I was wondering if there was a sentence that contains a country name (or generally a proper noun) that has a plural word in it - e.g., the United States or The United Emirates - how do we treat it? (Sorry if I sound non-technical, as I'm not exactly very good at language).
The United States of America have done something.
OR
The United States of America has done something.
which one is appropriate? Usually, I've been using "has" for countries (treating it as one entity).
There are many cases where an entity that's made up of plural words is singular. Obviously, the United States of America is a single entity, so "has" is right. This isn't an exception; this is the rule.
Unlimited Designs, a Delaware corporation, has gone out of business.
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Strictly speaking, you should handle it on a case-by-case basis. In everyday usage (i.e., probably anything short of official diplomatic correspondence), stick with the singular.
(Background: Before the American Civil War of 1861-65, it was customary to say "The United States are...". Before the war, the US was a much looser federation of sovereign states than it is today, culturally as well as politically: a resident of Virginia would have considered herself a citizen of Virginia first and of the United States second. The war greatly strengthened the national bonds between the states, even to the point of changing the language: after the war and ever since, people have said "The United States is...". So there's precedent for treating a single nation-state as plural, but in the modern world it's not something that's likely to come up.)
The comprehensive article on plurals at Wikipedia ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_plural ) includes the following:
Geographical plurals used as singular
Geographical names may be treated as singular even if they are plural in form, if they are regarded as representing a single entity such as a country: The United States is a country in North America (similarly with the Netherlands, the Philippines, Trinidad and Tobago, etc.) However if the sense is a group of geographical objects, such as islands or mountains, a plural-form name will be treated as plural: The Hebrides are a group of islands off the coast of Scotland. [end quote]
This leads to different treatments when the same descriptor is used for both region and features:
The North West Highlands is a key area in the history of geological science.
...the North West Highlands are the mountains I love ...
(both Google; however, usage often illogically crosses over)
