Collective Nouns and Consistency
The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation
Collective Nouns and Consistency
In American English, most collective nouns take singular verbs—except when a sentence emphasizes the individuals in the group, not the group as a whole.
In a sentence like The faculty is organized into eight departments, the collective noun faculty is singular. But consider The university’s faculty are renowned scholars in their own right. In that sentence, faculty is plural because it refers to the members rather than to the unit. Some sentences could go either way. In a sentence like The faculty disagrees/disagree on the need for a new facility, it’s a judgment call whether to make faculty singular or plural.
Would it be bad form for faculty to be “it” in one sentence and “they” in another? Many authorities say yes. Claire Kehrwald Cook, a renowned copyeditor turned author, says, “Keep it consistently singular or plural … The shifting from singular to plural may be distracting if the sentences occur close together.” English scholar Bryan A. Garner takes it a step further: “If in the beginning of an essay, the phrasing is the faculty was, then every reference to faculty as a noun should be singular throughout the whole.”
That may be solid advice, but it feels a bit extreme. If faculty is singular in the first paragraph of a five thousand-word story and plural in the final paragraph, one in a hundred readers might notice the discrepancy, and one in a thousand might care. Nonetheless, Garner’s perfectionism is a goal worth shooting for.
If consistency with a collective noun is commendable in essays, it is essential in sentences. Yet we read things like the following all the time: I hope the company gets what they’ve asked for. The writer sees no problem in making company singular (gets), then plural two words later. It’s a mystery why nobody spotted the problem and made the obvious fix: I hope the company gets what it has asked for.
Here’s another: Technology allows us to rethink how the public interacts with their government. We can all agree that “with its government” is clunky. Instead let’s remove the s from interacts. There is nothing grammatically wrong with how the public interact with their government.
Still, there are those who would rather not pair a collective noun with a plural verb. All right then, why not change the public to the people? Or remove the unnecessary their, which gives us Technology allows us to rethink how the public interacts with the government, a decided improvement on the original.
Although collective nouns can be singular or plural, depending on context, keeping them singular is the preference of many writers. All others should avoid the trap of having it both ways—ideally in the same story, but unquestionably in the same sentence.
Pop Quiz
Are these sentences all right? If not, can you fix them? (Answers are at the bottom of the newsletter.)
1. The jury reached its verdict after they deliberated for three days.
2. The pair was last spotted leaving their home in separate cars.
3. After they won, the team was shouting and congratulating themselves.
Pop Quiz Answers
There are many good alternatives. Here are our suggestions.
1. The jury reached its verdict after deliberating for three days.
2. The pair were last spotted leaving their home in separate cars.
3. The players were shouting and congratulating themselves after the team won.
If the article or the existing discussions do not address a thought or question you have on the subject, please use the "Comment" box at the bottom of this page.
The pair were…?
How does a pair become plural even though it denotes two persons.
Would we say “A couple were kissing each other”.
Is this the American way?
The sentence reads “The pair were last spotted leaving their home in separate cars.” This particular sentence indicates individuality, therefore the collective noun pair is plural. Your example sentence, “A couple were kissing each other,” is correct. Again, each person in the couple is acting individually unlike the sentence “Each couple was given a complimentary bottle of wine.”
Is it: “The most wonderful thing was the swans.” or “The most wonderful things were the swans.” The verb to be is reflexive, which (to my mind) confuses it all the more.
The subject of your sentence should be singular (‘thing”), so use “was.” As we interpret it, the writer is saying that the overall presence of swans WAS what was wonderful, not that each swan was wonderful in itself.
When referring to a Bloom family name including many members of the family…, can you write the Bloom’s with an apostrophe???
A simple plural does not ordinarily take an apostrophe, even in the case of proper nouns; therefore, write the Blooms. See our post Apostrophes and Proper Nouns for more information.
If the sentences have “a sea of” or “a cluster of,” would these take singular or plural? Should these be grouped under words that indicate portions, where we are guided by the noun after “of” or should the emphasis be on the word that comes before “of”?
A cluster of trees appears at one side of the forest. (appears or appear?)
A sea of leaves and twigs roars in the forest fire. (roars or roar?)
The words cluster and sea are not considered portion words; therefore, they take singular verbs.
A cluster of trees appears at one side of the forest.
A sea of leaves and twigs roars in the forest fire.
Why is there a difference in how collective nouns are used in British English?
“We are coming to dinner.” Confuses me every time, since it means “I am coming to dinner.” How, then, does one convey that more than just me is coming to dinner?
The BBC are biased. Another example.
Virgin Atlantic are offering new services to America.
Because we focus on American English, we are not familiar with many of British English’s preferences and idioms. For questions about British usage, you might consider a resource such as the University of Oxford Style Guide.