collective nouns

Question

(a) There is / are a herd of elephants on the field. There is / are a stalk of roses on the table. (b) There is a bar of chocolate / There are two bars of chocolates.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

(a) There is / are a herd of elephants on the field.-- Both possible in actual English; is is the rule.

There is a rose on the table.-- Roses only come per 'stalk'.

(b) There is a bar of chocolate / There are two bars of chocolate.

Vincent Teo · Answer

I have a few questions to ask. Shall I put plural noun for each collective nouns if the nouns is countable like (a) ? If that is uncountable, so I can't put plural like (b)?

Eg: (a) A herd of elephants.

(b) ten bottles of mineral water

Another question is :

(i) "Chocolate" is countable or uncountable? Why can't I put it in plural?

(b) There are five stalks of roses.

There is a rose. (I thought "stalk" is for singular, like " a stalk of flower" is correct, but that is wrong.)

Mister Micawber · Answer

Shall I put plural noun for each collective nouns if the nouns is countable like (a) ? -- Yes

If that is uncountable, so I can't put plural like (b)? -- Right.

(i) "Chocolate" is countable or uncountable? -- In your first post, uncountable (you have used the counter, 'bar')
Why can't I put it in plural? -- You can if you are speaking of (usually) small pieces of chocolate candies, e.g. one box of chocolates, two boxes of chocolates.

(b) I thought "stalk" is for singular, like " a stalk of flower". -- A rose is a rose is a rose. There are long-stemmed roses, and a bunch of roses, and single rosebuds. It is a matter of learning collocations: a stalk of celery/corn/wheat/broccoli/asparagus/rhubarb.

collective nouns

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions