In American English, most collective nouns take singular verbs\u2014except when a sentence emphasizes the individuals in the group, not the group as a whole.<\/p>\n
In a sentence like The faculty is<\/em> organized into eight departments<\/em>, the collective noun faculty <\/em>is singular. But consider The university\u2019s faculty are renowned scholars<\/em> in their own right. In that sentence, faculty <\/em>is plural because it refers to the members rather than to the unit. Some sentences could go either way. In a sentence like The faculty disagrees\/disagree on the need for a new facility<\/em>, it\u2019s a judgment call whether to make faculty <\/em>singular or plural.<\/p>\n Would it be bad form for faculty<\/em> to be \u201cit\u201d in one sentence and \u201cthey\u201d in another? Many authorities say yes. Claire Kehrwald Cook, a renowned copyeditor turned author, says, \u201cKeep it consistently singular or plural \u2026 The shifting from singular to plural may be distracting if the sentences occur close together.\u201d English scholar Bryan A. Garner takes it a step further: \u201cIf in the beginning of an essay, the phrasing is the faculty was<\/em>, then every reference to faculty<\/em> as a noun should be singular throughout the whole.\u201d<\/p>\n That may be solid advice, but it feels a bit extreme. If faculty <\/em>is singular in the first paragraph of a five thousand-word story and plural in the final paragraph, one in a hundred readers might notice the discrepancy, and one in a thousand might care. Nonetheless, Garner\u2019s perfectionism is a goal worth shooting for.<\/p>\n If consistency with a collective noun is commendable in essays, it is essential in sentences. Yet we read things like the following all the time: I hope the company gets what they\u2019ve asked for<\/em>. The writer sees no problem in making company<\/em> singular (gets<\/em>), then plural two words later. It\u2019s a mystery why nobody spotted the problem and made the obvious fix: I hope the company gets what it has asked for<\/em>.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s another: Technology allows us to rethink how the public interacts with their government<\/em>. We can all agree that \u201cwith its<\/em> government\u201d is clunky. Instead let\u2019s remove the s <\/em>from interacts<\/em>. There is nothing grammatically wrong with how the public <\/em>interact<\/strong><\/em> with their government<\/em>.<\/p>\n Still, there are those who would rather not pair a collective noun with a plural verb. All right then, why not change the public<\/em> to the people<\/em>? Or remove the unnecessary their<\/em>, which gives us Technology allows us to rethink how the public interacts with the government<\/em>, a decided improvement on the original.<\/p>\n Although collective nouns can be singular or plural, depending on context, keeping them singular is the preference of many writers. All others should avoid the trap of having it both ways\u2014ideally in the same story, but unquestionably in the same sentence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n Are these sentences all right? If not, can you fix them? (Answers are at the bottom of the newsletter.)<\/p>\n 1. The jury reached its verdict after they deliberated for three days. <\/p>\n Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n There are many good alternatives. Here are our suggestions.<\/p>\n 1. The jury reached its verdict after deliberating<\/em> for three days. In American English, most collective nouns take singular verbs\u2014except when a sentence emphasizes the individuals in the group, not the group as a whole. In a sentence like The faculty is organized into eight departments, the collective noun faculty is singular. But consider The university\u2019s faculty are renowned scholars in their own right. In that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,26,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1585","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effective-writing","category-singular-vs-plural","category-subject-and-verb-agreement"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1585"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1585\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1585"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1585"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1585"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2. The pair was last spotted leaving their home in separate cars.
\n3. After they won, the team was shouting and congratulating themselves.<\/p>\n
\n2. The pair were<\/em> last spotted leaving their home in separate cars.
\n3. The players were<\/em> shouting and congratulating themselves after the team<\/em> won.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"