Answer:
What is a collective noun? A collective noun refers to a group of people, animals or a collection of things taken as a whole.
Common Examples of Collective Nouns
Different groups of collective nouns exist. Here is a list of collective nouns, which is by no means exhaustive.
Collective Noun Examples:
People
team
committee
family
Collective nouns: singular or plural? Generally, collective nouns are singular, even though they refer to multiple people or things.
For example, “army” refers to a group of individuals. However, the term itself is singular.
Therefore, collective nouns generally require singular verb forms.
Example:
The army invades the camp.
“Invades” is a singular conjugation for the verb “to invade”
Sometimes, a collective noun can be made plural.
Example:
The families attend the baseball game.
“Attend” is a plural conjugation for the verb “to attend”
Furthermore, pronoun agreement for collective nouns can be difficult to decipher. Even though a collective noun might refer to a group of people, the group itself is a thing.
As a result, the thing requires a third-person pronoun.
Singular example:
The army invaded the camp. It was successful at conquering the enemy.
“It” is the correct pronoun for “army” because the group itself is a singular thing.
Plural example:
The families attended the baseball game. They enjoyed their day.
“They/their” are the correct pronouns for “families” because the group is plural.
Explanation:
