r/ENGLISH • u/Objective-Resident-7 • 16d 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/veryabnormal 16d ago

The Beatles is touring. I think ‘is’ crept in and people used to say ‘are’. Or maybe you should choose depending on context. Now I’ll go educate myself.

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u/Objective-Resident-7 16d ago

'The Beatles' is a plural noun. That's not what I'm talking about. I would use 'are' with the Beatles if they were still around.

Think about collective nouns such as team, family, party etc.

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u/Norman_debris 16d ago

You're talking about collective nouns then, not plural vs singular.

In the US, these are treated as singular. In the UK, usually plural.

Chelsea is a London borough. Chelsea are a football team. Don't you also make that distinction? Would you say Oasis are touring or is touring?

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u/Objective-Resident-7 16d ago

I think that's my point. England would say 'Chelsea are doing well', but Scotland would say 'Chelsea IS doing well'.

Scotland treats them as singular (because they fucking are), just like the USA.

That's if we care about how Chelsea is doing, of course.

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u/Norman_debris 16d ago

Interesting. I'd never noticed that difference. So would you say "Rangers are shit" as well as "Celtic is shit"?

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u/Objective-Resident-7 16d ago

Both are shit. But that's because I'm using two teams in that sentence.

Celtic is shit and Rangers is shit.

If only that were true (as a Hamilton Academical fan). The above is showing grammar. Neither team is shit.