Subject and verb agreement with collective nouns grammar. There are collective nouns for people, animals, objects, and concepts. When using collective nouns, writers occasionally face questions of subject verb agreement and pronoun agreement. We often use singular nouns that refer to groups of people for example. Jane straus is the author of the blue book of grammar and punctuation and developer of. Do you use a singular or plural verb to match a collective noun such as team or staff. You wouldnt use a plural verb and say, my family are big. Our large collection of ela worksheets are a great study tool for all ages. This article helps you learn detailed list of collective nouns with pdf lesson. To be considered a collective noun, the word has to be a collection of countable people or things. For example, words like faculty, herd, and team are collective nounstheyre singular words but represent a group. Use a singular verb when the members of the group are acting together as a unit.
All members of the team arrive at the same place at the same time. A collective noun refers to a type of noun that encompasses a whole group as a single entity as well as the members of that group. Then complete each sentence by choosing the correct form of the verb in parentheses. The system of english nouns, for most of the indonesianlearners of english, is complicated.
When you are thinking of the couple as two separate people doing separate things, you would probably use a plural verb. By a thing here, it means that it comprises something which can be perceived by human senses, or that which cannot be perceived but can be thought of. Download and print turtle diary s identify collective nouns in the passage worksheet. This implies that what may be particularly difficult for polish learners of english is the use of plural verbs after english collective nouns which are not definitely. Identify collective nouns in the passage worksheet. In these examples, the collective nouns are treated as a whole. For this collective nouns worksheet, students fill in the missing collective noun in 24 examples that show the word for a group of animals or other things. If these nouns are acting as a unit, use a singular verb. Collective nouns are words used to describe a group of. On verbal concord with collective nouns in british english halshs. In russian there is normally no variation in verb agreement with. It is important to be able to identify collective nouns because of the way they agree with verbs.
The nypd is investigating contra the police are investigating. A collective noun is a name for a group of people or things such as family, class, pack, bouquet, pair, and flock. In british english a collective noun can be used either with singular or plural verbs and pronouns. Collective nouns are used to describe a group or collection of individuals. When the collective noun is functioning as a group, use the singular form of the verb. Sometimes, there is confusion on subject verb agreement with collective nouns. Collective nouns are nouns that refer to a collection or group of multiple people, animals, or things. Collective nounsdefinition and most popular examples. Other examples include measles, civics, social studies, mumps, news, cast, social studies. Generally, collective nouns are singular, even though they refer to multiple people or things. Collective nouns are words that refer to a collection of people, things, animals, insects etc. Find collective nouns in the paragraph teaches collective nouns to 1st graders in a fun, interactive environment.
Fill in the blanks with suitable collective nouns from the list. A singular collective noun usually takes a singular verb. Singular collective nouns include molasses one kind of syrup and chicken pox one kind of disease. Here are some examples of the collective nouns for a clearer. They have developed throughout the history of the english language, with new collective nouns still being created, although time will tell if these latest additions will survive think a hood of bros, a array of geeks.
With collectivenoun subjects, american english speakers used plural verbs at a rate intermediate between the. A collective noun is a noun that can be singular in form whilst referring to a group of people or things. So, do i use a singular or plural verb with a collective noun. Groups of animals colony, flock, herd, pack, pod, school, swarm. Yes, band is a venerial term for a group of people with some internal cohesion and a goal in common. Collective nouns exercise english practice learn and. Syntactic definitions have focused on agreement and partitive constructions. Readers look for the collective noun groups in the story and circle all 40 of them. The public is singular alarmed at the rising cost of housing. In linguistics, a collective noun is a collection of things taken as a whole.
Use correct verbs and pronouns with collective nouns. Quirk et al 1985 take collective nouns to be those that can co. Collective noun grammar exercise with answers collective. The noun is a class of words denoting entity a separate unit that is complete and has its own characteristics. In british english, the preceding sentence would be correct, but it would also be correct to treat the collective noun as a plural, with a plural verb. For example, army refers to a group of individuals. In american english, collective nouns generally take the singular verb form. Collective nouns used as one unit take a singular verb.
For example, 52 cards would be known as a deck of cards. See more ideas about collective nouns, word study and 2nd grade ela. Proper nouns name specific, oneofakind items while common nouns identify the general varieties. A typical noun has sense the inherent meaning of the noun. Confusing mass nouns with collective nouns a mass noun i. As shown in the following examples, collective nouns may or may not cooccur with plural marking elsewhere in the sentence. Collective nouns, as the name implies, are collections of individual nouns. For example, team is a collective noun that refers to a group of people, but its actually a singular noun. Collective nouns englische sammelbezeichnungen lingolia. Some collective nouns are specific to one kind of thing, especially terms of venery, which identify groups of.
Use of collective nouns and verbs english language. Some collective nouns may take either a singular or a plural verb, depending on their use in the sentence. Syntactic and semantic definitions for collective nouns have been suggested. This is because we often think of the group as people, doing things that people do eating, wanting, feeling etc. This is because we often think of the group as people, doing things that people do eating. Pdf agreement with collective nouns in english researchgate. But it can sometimes be difficult to decide if your collective noun is singular or plural. Collective nouns are sometimes confused with mass nouns. Juul 1975 and crystal 1997 define collective nouns as nouns that can cooccur with a singular or a plural verb. Collective nouns with examples a collective noun is the word used to represent a group of people, animals, or things. The way we determine in which manner the collective noun should be used is to consider whether the members of the collective noun are being regarded as a single, whole unit, or as multiple individuals.
Jun 05, 2017 group, for example, is a collective noun. Okay, now that you remember what nouns are, lets get back to the main question. That thing, however, is made up of more than one person. So you could treat a collective noun as singular if it referred to a single entity and plural if it referred to a number of individuals. Verb to use with a collective noun grammar lessons. Arguably, in prescriptive grammar, a singular verb goes with a singular noun and a plural noun takes a plural verb. Here is most important 100 examples of collective nouns. Collective nouns are sometimes confused with mass nouns groups of people army, audience, band, choir, class, committee, crew, family, gang, jury, orchestra, police, staff, team, trio. Proper nouns name a particular person, place, thing, or idea and begin with a capital letter. In the infographic below, the collective nouns are shown in yellow. Nouns in the english system a noun can be defined as a word used to name a person, place, or thing.
Singular forms are common when the group is seen as an impersonal unit. Pdf on may 27, 2008, henri annala and others published changes in subject verb agreement with collective nouns in british english from. You can spot a collective noun where a team is being discussed as a single entity. Find collective nouns in a paragraph noun game turtle diary. Collective noun meaning in the cambridge english dictionary. Subject and verb agreement with collective nouns world. It used to be more common than it is now band of brothers is from henry v and less specialized.
List of collective nouns by collective noun armada of ships army of caterpillars, frogs, soldiers bank of circuits battery of tests bed of clams, snakes belt of asteroids bevy of beauties bouquet of flowers brood of hens caravan of camels cete of badgers chain of islands clan of hyenas class of students cloud of gnats clowder of cats. Plural forms are preferred when the group is considered as a collection of people doing personal things. Sometimes, there is confusion on subjectverb agreement with collective nouns. Collective nouns can take either a singular or plural verb depending on the context. As you read the following examples, notice that all members of the collective noun are doing the same thing at the same time. For example, you would say, the couple are vacationing separately this year, because they are two different people doing two different things. There are lot of frequently asked questions and answers in various exams like tnpsc group 1, tnpsc group 2, tnpsc group 4 vao exams, tamil nadu police constable exams questions, bank exams, ssc and competitive exams. When a collective noun is referring to a group of individuals it takes a plural verb. Pdf on may 27, 2008, henri annala and others published changes in subjectverb agreement with collective nouns in british english from. Collective nouns and language change english language. Agreement is also displayed in relative pronouns in english.
A collective noun looks singular, but it can be treated as singular or plural depending on whether the word refers to the group as a single entity or to its members as individuals. Collective nouns usually take a singular verb, because they are singular in construction, but they sometimes take a plural verb. Collective nouns take a singular or plural verb mary. Oct 15, 2012 nouns which are thus used to denote a collection of people or things are called collective nouns. Collective nouns refer to groups of people, animals, or things. If the sentence indicates more individuality, use a plural verb. Classification of band as a collective noun english. Collective nouns represent a team of people, place, animal, or other things. Nouns a noun is the part of speech that names a person, place, thing, or an idea. This includes groups of people, animals and inanimate objects. Groups of people army, audience, band, choir, class, committee, crew, family, gang, jury, orchestra, police, staff, team, trio.
The team is traveling to chicago for the championship. Identifying and understanding collective nouns underline the collective noun in each of the following sentences. On the other hand, if youre thinking of the couple as a single unit, you would probably use a singular verb. Every afternoon the baseball team follows its coach out to the hot field for practice. Collective nouns group nouns learn english grammar. Singular and plural verbs with collective nouns a plural collective noun takes a plural verb. Pdf subjectverb concord with collective nouns or the count. A12 gramatica da lingua inglesa collective nouns complete the expressions with the following collective nouns.
Is the word information considered as a collective noun. Most collective nouns in everyday speech are not specific to one kind of thing, such as the word group, which can be applied to people a group of people or dogs a group of dogs or other things. It is interesting to note that when a decision needs to be made about whether a collective noun is singular or plural and the answer is ambiguous, american english will almost always default to a singular verb, while british english writers will often choose a plural. The act that is performed as a unit gets a singular verb, while the other gets a plural one. Collective nouns are names for a collection or a number of people or things. Posted in collective nouns, collective nouns and pronouns, collective nouns and verb agreement, onupon at 6.
When people do use what looks like the plurals airs, glasses, then they dont mean the same thing as the mass noun we are talking about. Generally, in american english, collective nouns take singular verbs, e. Complete each sentence by choosing the correct collective noun from the box at the bottom of the page. In british english, however, collective nouns are often treated as plural in form and so take plural verbs, e. Is the word information considered as a collective noun in english.
Collective nouns collective nouns are words used to describe a group of nouns. Lets take a look at some examples of subject verb agreement involving collective nouns. Is the word information considered as a collective noun in. The jury, as a group, has collectively reached the verdict. Collective nouns can be tricky because it is up to the author of the sentence to determine whether the noun is acting as a single unit, or whether the sentence indicates more individuality. Therefore, collective nouns generally require singular verb. Find collective nouns in a paragraph noun game turtle. It seems the british use this far more than the us and it doesnt seem to agree with the concept of a collect noun which reflects reference to a group rather than multiples. Pdf changes in subjectverb agreement with collective nouns in. Collective nouns group nouns english grammar learn. Identify collective nouns in the passage worksheet turtle diary. Jan 05, 2018 its very important to know how to describe groups of people, animals and things in english. Collective nouns are words like family, team, committee, government and audience. Collective nouns are used to describe a group of persons, animals, or thing.