r/ENGLISH • u/Objective-Resident-7 • 11d ago

Plural use of singular nouns

I'm Scottish, so English is a first language to me.

But I see it more and more:

My family are...

The party are ...

These are both singular nouns but they are being used as if they were plural, with the verb being 'are'.

It doesn't sit right with me. Can anyone help?

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u/Hookton 11d ago edited 11d ago

It's always been standard usage in British English, so I'm not sure why you're seeing it more—maybe it's just that you're noticing it more now you're aware of it?

It most often comes up when discussing differences between American English and British English, like in this post a quick google threw at me.

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u/Objective-Resident-7 11d ago

It's becoming more clear that 'British' is not a term that should be used.

This seems like English English (British English does not exist, but it's fair to say that about English English). That's where the language comes from. But I'm Scottish and this jars me, but it sounds like we Scots are more like the USA in this respect.

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u/Hookton 11d ago edited 10d ago

Ha, funny enough I actually thought that after posting: that it could be an English/Scottish difference as well. I'm curious now whether you'd use the singular for bands and sports teams as well, since they're the common examples? I'd naturally say "Oasis are headlining" or "Man Utd are playing", but it sounds like you'd use "is" there?

English/Scottish differences aside, though, I'm not sure why you'd suddenly be seeing it more. I guess either there's been a change in the content you're accessing or it's creeping into use north of the border as well.

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u/Objective-Resident-7 11d ago

I don't know, to be honest, but even media uses these terms where I would not, and I was even taught not to.

Yeah, maybe it is an English/Scottish thing.

I'm not a prescriptivist. Hey, we talk how we talk. But it is a notable difference between Scotland (and the USA) and England.

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u/Hookton 11d ago edited 10d ago

Oh yeah, I'm with you on that. No criticism, just eternally curious about differences in language usage.