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The group is happy with their performance.Once you've decided whether your collective noun is singular or plural, stay consistent throughout your sentence. The phrase "members of the audience" is plural.) The members of the audience are all wearing comedy wigs.If it feels a little uncomfortable treating a collective noun as singular or plural, add a term like "members of" to force a plural term. Lleyton Hewitt would have instinctively chosen "crowd are" over "crowd is" because not all the individuals in the crowd would have been spitting at him, compelling him to think of the crowd as lots of individuals.)Īs a general rule, you should treat a collective noun as singular unless you have a good reason for treating it as plural. (In the first sentence, "crowd" is singular. (Australian tennis player Lleyton Hewitt) I have played some of my best tennis away from home, but it can be tough when the crowd are spitting on you.There is always an incredible crowd that follows me.(In the first sentence "audience" is singular. The audience are all wearing comedy wigs.However, in the second example, the shoal is considered as lots of individuals, and "shoal" is treated as plural.) Therefore, "shoal" is treated as singular. (In the first sentence, the shoal is considered as one unit. The shoal were darting in all directions.You should treat a collective noun (shaded in the examples below) as singular or plural depending on the sense of your sentence. In other words, should you write "the group is" or "the group are"? Well, both can be right. Some collective nouns are quite versatile.īy far the most common question about collective nouns is whether to treat them as singular or plural. The video also covers how the context determines whether your collective noun is singular or plural and how to use the "wrong" collective noun for a literary effect (e.g., a forest of soldiers, a pack of ships). Here is a 4-minute video summarizing this lesson on collective nouns. Here are some examples of common collective nouns used for things: Of interest, collective nouns that describe a specific group of animals are called "terms of venery."

Here are some examples of common collective nouns used for animals: Here are some examples of common collective nouns used for people: Below are some examples of the most common ones for people, animals, and things.