The school are or the school is?

Question

I have just read a report and the following phrasing is giving me difficulty.

The School are experiencing water penetration problems...

I feel as though it should be 'is' but I can also see why 'are' could be considered to be correct. In the report it is referring to the people who make up the school rather than the building/organisation itself.

Is my thinking correct and are there specific rules governing this scenario?

Using the plural there is taking "the School" as a collective noun, meaning it considers the entity as the collection of its constituents, not the sum. That usage is an artifact of British English, for the most part. — Robusto, Apr 04 '17 at 14:08
Related: “India has” or “India have”; My family ( is / are ) all doctors; Uncountable nouns taking singular verbs when they are used as a body or a group; Can the word 'crowd' be used in plural; and When and why do/does “staff” as a collective noun get plural/singular pronoun/verb? among others. — choster, Apr 04 '17 at 14:23
@Robusto: Artifact? Exactly what nuance is that supposed to convey? Hopefully not something ... that is not naturally present. Though actually there are very few contexts where even we Brits would "naturally" reference a *school* as a plural verb subject (but it's certainly not impossible). — FumbleFingers, Apr 04 '17 at 15:36
@Fumble: Relax, I was just rattling your cage. I knew you'd rise to the bait. ^_^ — Robusto, Apr 04 '17 at 15:40
@Robusto: Rattled indeed! As soon as I'd hit posted that comment, I began to have doubts as to whether there were any contexts where plural "school" might actually be preferable to my ear. So fearing you might call me out on that point, I spent a couple of minutes unsuccessfully trying to find one in Google Books. I've just had another go, and the only one I can come up with is ...a local golf club, where my current school were* having an end of session party.* Weird to you, I expect, but fine by me. — FumbleFingers, Apr 04 '17 at 15:48
You need to make a better explanation of how "school" is plural. When you say "it is referring to the people who make up the school", you really mean the students or the employees. In your example, "The school buildings are experiencing water penetration problems" which is clearly plural. — user3169, Apr 05 '17 at 02:46

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 23 '17 at 13:41

With respect to Robusto and FumbleFingers the "are" is really incorrect English here.

The School are experiencing water penetration problems... - Whether a noun or a collective noun you still can't make this word plural. However, there could be an issue at why it is capitalized? Even if School stands for a collective noun for fish (some academics argue that 'School' is incorrect, and that Shoal should generally be used instead) it should still take a singular verb.

If we are talking about the building where you study the correct should either be:

The schools are experiencing water penetration problems...

Or

The school is experiencing water penetration problems...

Specifically, it is incorrect grammatically to not have subject-verb agreement. However, spoken English is fraught with instances of incorrect grammar, so you will always hear and even read grammatically incorrect examples. — Vekzhivi, May 23 '17 at 14:57

The school are or the school is?

1 Answers1