Question

When are collective nouns said to be plural?

Answer 1

Collective nouns are said to be plural when there is more than one group.

Option: C

Explanation:

A collection of supposed items as a whole is understood as a collective noun. Some collective nouns are not limited to one kind of thing in everyday conversation, such as the word community which can be imposed on people, dogs or other items. Typically, collective nouns follow a singular verb since they are singular in structure but often they take a plural verb. Using a plural verb while community members behave as individuals. The jury were permitted to go home to their families every day, for an instance.

Answer 2

Collective nouns are said to be plural (A) when there is more than one of the same kind of group

Explanation:

A collective noun can be singular or plural depending on the context  of the sentence. In the first example below, the goat is considered as one unit. Therefore, goat is considered singular. However, in the second example, the goats  is considered as lots of individuals, and goat is considered plural.

Examples:

The goat was moving north.  

(singular – considered as one unit)

The goats were darting in all directions.  

(plural – considered as individuals)

Let take an example to understand this concept- Nouns such as 'sheep' or 'fish', when used collectively, are said to be  morphologically singular but they are semantically plural.  'Fish' accepts the morphologically plural form 'fishes' when referring to species of fish.similarly 'sheep' accepts the morphologically plural form 'fishes'