After 10 years of being in the US I still don't know how to properly use collective nouns. Can someone put me out of my misery?

Question

I still have to guess when I use collective nouns. I still don't know whether I should say, for example,

"The staff are required to follow the rules"
or
"The staff is required to follow the rules"

"The committee meet at two."
or
"The committee meets at two."

"The population are concered."
or
"The population is concered."

I still don't get it. Can someone please explain to me how to tell whether I should use the singular or the plural when using collective nouns?

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

Both options are generally open to you unless you are clearly speaking of interaction within the collective, as in 'the team are always arguing over who should be captain'.

KateJS · Answer

Don't worry, a lot of native speakers don't get it either - including me

. Personally, I use 'is' when the components of the noun are acting collectively. For example, the committee meets, the organisation is growing, the government is concerned.

Where the noun refers to a number of individuals who are really independent of each other, I tend to use 'are'.. The staff are required to follow the rules - each staff member is required to follow the rules, they don't act together to follow them. The population is concerned - it's the individuals within the population who are concerned - they don't have a 'collective mind' in the way that the government does.

This isn't necessarily correct though!

KateJS · Answer

Sorry, - I meant to say 'the population are concerned' in that 3rd from last line. Duh!

Ferdis · Answer

I'd also say "the committee meet at two" because it takes at least two to meet: the members of the committee are meeting each other at two. If there is a dispute within a single committee, then clearly the committee are in dispute; however, if there is a dispute between two different committees, then the committee is in dispute with the other committee.

So, in fact, I'd use a plural form for all three of these examples; they are all concerned with the individual parts making up the collective.

Anonymous · Answer

I opt for: (l) The staff (as a unit) is required to follow the rules (but "The staff (individually) are studying their paychecks"); (2) The committee (as a unit) meets at two (but "The committee (individually) are arguing loudly with one another); (3) The population (as a whole) is very concerned about the new law.  (P.S.: sometimes, the decision is made for you. If you live in the US, "The government is...." while in the UK one often says "The government are...."; some professional writers seem to make their choice based on what sounds best; many books advise language learners (and even native speakers) to choose the singular in case of doubt.)

After 10 years of being in the US I still don't know how to properly use collective nouns. Can someone put me out of my misery?

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