English Language Learners Stack Exchange
English Language Learners Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [collective-nouns]

Questions about nouns that refer to a group as a whole

A collective noun refers to a group of individual items, whatever those items are. A collective noun is grammatically singular, but semantically plural: it refers to many things with a single word. This may cause confusion about the correct form of verb agreement or pluralization of such nouns.

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nouns like "company" and "staff"

A dictionary has the following definition for "company": people who are visiting you in your home What if there is only one person visiting? Could "company" still be used? Also, if a person owns a company and has only one employee, can he refer to…
Apollyon
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Do you use expressions like "I have two (or three, four.....) valuables in my suitcase."?

A grammar book I'm reading now explains, "the word valuables is a plural noun, but unlike many others, phrases like three valuables is possible although a/one valuable is impossible". Googling such phrases, however, I can find no similar ones. If…
Takashi
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Should I use 'is' or 'are' in this sentence? which one is correct?

You can't trust people with secrets these days. The majority [is or are] gossips. which one is correct and why?
jojo
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This family or these family

In british English the word family takes a plural verb. My question is does the word family take a plural determiner as well? For example: These family are willing to help you. In AmE the word family takes a singular verb so this question is really…
Curiousword
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"People decrease" or "The number of people decrease"?

I'm writing a formal technical report. I'm bit confused about how to use "decrease". The report discusses the shift in the number of people heading home in the evening. I'd like to say "the number of people who go their home slowly decrease(s?)…
Light Yagmi
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Should a verb in the phrase "A family of animals" be singular or plural?

A family of rabbits is playing in the garden. Here can I use are instead of is? According to Combridge dictionary, is or are is correct here, right? [C, + sing/pl verb]: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/family
Jones
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"Have" Vs "Has" when using with name of a team

Which of the two sentences are grammatically correct? Ferrari has been struggling this season. Or Ferrari have been struggling this season. According to my understanding, 'has' is what I should use because 'Ferrari' is a name of a team. But,…
7_R3X
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