Collective noun plural or singular
I had supposed a collective noun was always considered singular. However I heard some people would take some of the following to be plural. How to determine if we should treat them singular or plural?
- a bunch of banana is/are ...
- a bunch of keys is/are ...
- a bunch of people is/are ...
- a bunch of papers is/are ...
With "lots/a lot" I regard them singular or plural all depend on the countability of the nouns it refers to. If it is countable I would consider it plural.
- A lot of people are ...
- A lot of water is ...
Please comment!
Top answer
When these constructions are in the subject position, the verb agrees with the first noun in some cases and with the second noun in other cases. It all depends on the first noun. Most of the time you have to memorize how these work, one by one.
- When these constructions are in the subject position, the verb agrees with the first noun in some cases and with the second noun in other cases.
- It all depends on the first noun.
- Most of the time you have to memorize how these work, one by one.
- the leader of the bandits is the leaders of the team are a lot of water is a lot of people are the rest of the food was the rest of the duties were For the specific case of "a bunch of", agreement is with the second noun, which is always plural.
- a bunch of thugs were a bunch of scientists are Note that there is disagreement among writers about certain constructions.
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When these constructions are in the subject position, the verb agrees with the first noun in some cases and with the second noun in other cases. It all depends on the first noun. Most of the time you have to memorize how these work, one by one.
the leader of the bandits is
the leaders of the team are
a lot of water is
a lot of people
0
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