Questions tagged [collective-nouns]
Questions or inquiries relating to nouns that refer to a group as a whole.
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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 ...
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"There is a plethora..." or "There are a plethora..."? [duplicate]
A simple question that has sparked some debate, and I couldn't find a concrete answer anywhere. There seems to be two camps: The word plethora indicates plural, so therefore it should be "There are a ...
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Why is "police" referred to using the singular pronoun "it" in this sentence?
With reference to this question Collective noun "police" — singular or plural? and as per my understanding police is always plural. But I got shocked after seeing police used as a singular ...
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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 ...
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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 ...
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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 of ...
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Is there a collective term for charges & fees?
Say I have documentation of a particular account with both amounts credited & amounts charged(fees). What would be an appropriately descriptive term for the collection of credits & charges(...
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Collective Noun for Fire
What is the collective noun for fire?
A ____ of fires.
To clarify: This is actually a school curriculum text question and I have never heard of such a collective noun. This is an example I can ...
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Is "school" a collective noun? [closed]
Identify the collective noun in the sentence: "Students have to take their entire school books home on the last day of school."
I couldn't find any credible sources stating that "school" is a ...
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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 ...
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Collective nouns and subject-verb agreement: general rule or arbitrary, looking at 'police' specifically?
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 "police ...
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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.
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youngest of his siblings [closed]
I have a problem with this sentence:
He was one of the youngest of his siblings.
The meaning should be clear: he had many brothers and sisters, and he was one of the youngest of the lot, but the ...
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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" ...
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Accurate British English term for an oblong deck from shore out into a lake where you tie your rowing boat
This is a typical image of the structure in question:
There are also some variations, shown in this Google image search.
But I'm after the often not very wide, some 20-30 feet long wood construction ...
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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 is ...
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What is the correct relative pronoun for "government"?
What is the correct relative pronoun for "government"? Which of the following phrases is correct? I am writing for an American [English] audience.
The Queensland Government, who licenses several ...
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Word for "a group of contests"
What is a word for a group of contests? It doesn't necessarily have to be a real word, just something that's concise and obvious, possibly something like decathlon but for an indeterminate number of ...
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When did "crew" become a sport? When did "crew team" come into use?
When I was a child, there was a sport called rowing; if four or more people rowed together in the same boat, they would be known as a crew. At some point, either before or during my childhood, the ...
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Is "audience" singular or plural?
I want to use 'audience' in the following sentence. In what form should I use it? Is it a singular or plural noun?
How the audience demotivate players in the NBA.
How the audience demotivates ...
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What do you call someone with the same occupation as you, but works for a different company?
What do you call someone who works in the same field or occupation as you do, but in a different company or organization?
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Phrase to refer to community of people who come together to exchange knowledge [closed]
I need a two word phrase to refer to a community of people (academia + non-academia) who come together to share/exchange their knowledge/ideas openly on topics of their interests/ specializations.
I ...
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Why is it a school/shoal of fish, dolphins, porpoises and squids for example, but rather a pod/gam/herd/mob of whales?
Would it be incorrect to say 'a school' of whales?
user15851
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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 ...
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"There are a couple of apples" or "there is a couple of apples"?
You have only one couple of apples, so it's singular.
There are multiple apples, so it's plural.
Which one is right, "there are a couple of apples" or "there is a couple of apples"? I have seen both ...
user3406
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What is a collective term for castles, citadels, forts, palaces etc.?
We at Travel-SE are having an ongoing tag reorganization, and we're trying to find a collective term that encompasses the following:
castles
châteaux (which are really castles, but not every castle ...
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What is the collective noun for "clouds"?
I've been looking at various forums with people proposing suggestions, but is there a consensus on what the collective noun is for "clouds"?
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"Couple was" or "couple were" getting married?
I have recently read both:
couple is getting married
couple are getting married
So which is actual usage?
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What is the "group name" for students who entered / left university in the same year?
For example, I entered my university in 2006, so I am a student of "grade 2006" (a direct translation from my own language). What is the proper English?
Besides, I need the word for students ...
user3812
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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 ...
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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 purposes of ...
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Etymology of seemingly weird collective nouns [duplicate]
Possible Duplicate:
Terms for collections of animals
In the collective names unkindness of ravens, shrewdness of apes, murder of crows, I cannot find any remote relation to a group. What is ...
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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 is,...
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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.
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"The pair was ..." or "the pair were ..."
I've recently read a blurb from a local paper that included the following:
The pair was drinking prior to the shooting.
To me, this appears wrong and I would say that the proper way to make the ...
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What is the collective noun for a collection of collective nouns? [closed]
murder : crows :: _ : collective nouns
Sorry, no multiple choice this time.
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In special cases, can you use "one such family are" vs. "one such family is"? [duplicate]
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 ...
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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 ...
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"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 ...
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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 of the following is correct?
All the media is...
All the media are...
When you search Google, both seem to appear at the same ...
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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 the ...
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Is "the USA" singular or plural?
On the one side, the USA is just one country. Logic says it should be, then, singular, just like the United Kingdom is. Example:
The USA owns this domain.
On the other side, if I however expand "...
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Is a music band a singular or a collective entity, grammatically speaking? [duplicate]
Duplicate:
Is the usage of “are” correct when referring to a team/group/band?
What is correct to say?
Korn* is a great band
OR
Korn* are a great band.
(* You can replace your favourite band's ...
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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 ...
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Does "staff" take a plural verb?
Which one of these two statements is correct?
Our staff do ...
Our staff does ...
And is staffs ever correct?
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Are collective nouns (and in particular companies) always given a plural verb form, or are certain ones treated as 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 ...
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Terms for collections of animals
As I watched the murder of crows sitting on the line above my house this evening, I got wondering where all of the collective nouns for animals (pod of whales, gaggle of geese, pride of lions) came ...
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