Those around the world who employ British English are far more comfortable using plural verbs with collective nouns and will happily-and correctly-say or write “choir were” and “team have.” The team PLAYERS wash their uniforms at home after each game.The choir MEMBERS weremeasured for theirnew robes.Often, then, Americans will add a plural noun after the collective noun to ensure not only that the sentence is grammatically correct but also that it sounds correct: In the two examples above (“choir were” and “team have”), the logical choice sounds wrong to many people-in particular, those who employ American English-even though it is correct. (Read more about the singular they elsewhere in this blog.) American vs. We could correctly say, for example, “Each performer in the band wasmeasured for theirnew uniform,” whereas in the past we would have had to say the more cumbersome (and exclusive) “for his or her new uniform.” Note that uniform must remain singular because it refers to each individual performer’s uniform. However, now that they, them, and their are widely accepted as nonbinary singular pronouns in reference to people, we may sometimes use them with singular collective nouns. Put another way, the collective noun and its pronoun should agree in number. Notice in those sentences that when we needed a pronoun to refer to the collective noun, that pronoun was also either singular or plural depending on the context. ( If each player individually washes that person’s own uniform, then the team is not acting as a single unit.)īoth Verbs and Pronouns Need to Agree with Collective Nouns
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