Looking for more? Add on to your knowledge about compound nouns with our article on them! Besides this difference, both collective nouns and compound nouns follow the same rules that govern all other nouns.
Both can be singular nouns or plural nouns. Both can be concrete nouns or abstract nouns. Possessive collective nouns can be tricky because they imply that the entire group owns or contributes to something. Although rare, it is possible for a noun to be both a collective noun and a compound noun. For example, the word homeroom is a compound noun formed from the words home and room. At the same time, homeroom can be used as a collective noun to refer to a group of students.
Look at each of the following sentences and see if you can understand why the given noun is a collective noun, a compound noun, or both. Improve your writing with Thesaurus. Using machine learning, this tool can definitely spot the difference between your singular and plural collective nouns—and more! Answers: 1. Collective 2. Compound 3.
Both Flash mob is a collective noun because it is a singular noun that refers to a group of people. Compound Seafood is an uncountable noun and not a collective noun. Compound Firefighters is a plural noun based on the noun firefighter , which is not a collective noun. A collective noun is a word or phrase that refers to a group of people or things as one entity. One common error that arises from using collective nouns is subject-verb disagreement: writers often become confused about whether to treat a collective noun as singular or plural.
While collective nouns are mostly treated as singular, there are exceptions. Collective nouns represent more than one person or thing in a class. Thus, a collective noun always describes a plurality of one kind or another. Grammarly can save you from misspellings, grammatical and punctuation mistakes, and other writing issues on all your favorite websites. The choir are singing to a sold-out hall for the third time in a row.
They are performing A German Requiem by Brahms tonight. The choir is singing to a sold-out hall for the third time in a row. It is performing A German Requiem by Brahms tonight. From the example above, we can see that the choir, though composed of many people, is a singular unit. One can assume that they will perform the Brahms requiem as one. If you see the individuals acting individually , then you probably treat the collective noun as plural with plural verbs and plural pronouns , for example:.
So in the example above, American English speakers might use a singular verb with jury and rephrase the rest of the sentence to avoid a logical absurdity:. However, even in American English, it is acceptable to use a plural verb if you really wish to emphasize the individuality of the collective noun members. In American English it is also possible to use a plural pronoun with a singular verb , as in:.
In most cases a collective noun can itself be plural. In other words, you can have more than one collective noun. For example, in a game of football there are TWO teams. In a street there are many families.
Right: The council needed to review the transcript before it could vote. Wrong: The court must first determine whether they have jurisdiction. Right: The court must first determine whether it has jurisdiction.
This error might arise from the perception that intermediate appellate courts often hear cases in panels of three and that highest courts often hear cases as a body of nine. Yet the court is a singular entity, no matter how many judges make it up. If the writer is thinking of the judges individually, it would be better to write this: The judges must first determine if they have jurisdiction. Collective nouns are generally singular and take singular verbs and pronouns.
If you think you have an exception, go ahead, but use your best editorial judgment and get a second opinion.
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