Agreement with collective nouns

Treat collective nouns as singular unless the meaning is clearly plural.

Collective nouns such as jury, committee, audience, crowd, class, troop, family, and couple name a class or a group. In American English, collective nouns are usually treated as singular: They emphasize the group as a unit.

SINGULAR

Example sentence: The class respects the teacher.

Occasionally, when there is some reason to draw attention to the individual members of the group, a collective noun may be treated as plural.

PLURAL

Example sentence: The class are debating among themselves.

To underscore the notion of individuality in the second sentence, many writers would add a clearly plural noun:

Example sentence: The members of the class are debating among themselves.

Example sentence with editing. Original sentence: The board of trustees meet in Denver twice a year. Revised sentence: The board of trustees meets in Denver twice a year. Explanation: The word 'meet' has been replaced by 'meets.'

The board as a whole meets; there is no reason to draw attention to its individual members.

Example sentence with editing. Original sentence: A young couple was arguing about politics while holding hands. Revised sentence: A young couple were arguing about politics while holding hands. Explanation: The word 'was' has been replaced by 'were.'

The meaning is clearly plural. Only individuals can argue and hold hands.

For a global audience:Collective nouns are treated as plural in British English. If you are writing for an international audience, you need to be alert to audience expectations for usage.

Heading: American English. Example sentence: The board of directors was in a private session when news of the hostile takeover was released.

Heading: British English. Example sentence: The board of directors were in a private session when news of the hostile takeover was released.

Subject-verb agreement at a glance

When to use the -s (or -es) form of a present-tense verb

Exercises:

Subject-verb agreement 1

Subject-verb agreement 2

Subject-verb agreement 3

Subject-verb agreement 4

Related topic:

Pronoun-antecedent agreement with collective nouns