Collective Nouns

A word that stands for a group of things is called a collective noun. In fact, the word group itself is a collective noun. Here are a few others: club, team, committee, furniture, jury, Congress, swarm, herd.

Usually these nouns are treated as singular, since the emphasis is on a unit rather than its parts.

• The team is going on the bus.

• The committee wants to find a solution to the problem.

But when you want to emphasize the individual parts of a group, you may treat a collective noun as plural.

• The team have argued about going on the bus.

• The committee want different solutions to the problem.

If the plural sounds awkward, try rewriting.

• The team members have argued about going on the bus.

• Committee members disagree about solutions to the problem.

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