0
Magda Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

The band has/have been playing ...

I have a question about collective noun "band".
Should I use "have" in this sentence: "The band have/has been playing together since 1990" ?

Thank you.
  

Top answer

com with: "band is playing" and "band are playing" (quotation marks are important) and draw your own conclusions

— Marius Hancu

  • com with: "band is playing" and "band are playing" (quotation marks are important) and draw your own conclusions
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

4 Answers
0
Search at the New York Times:
http://nytimes.com
with:
"band is playing"
and
"band are playing"
(quotation marks are important)
and draw your own conclusions
0
0
Hello Magda

In BrE, you might find either. "Has" presents the band as a single entity; "have" as a collection of entities. I would myself say "have", as "playing together" implies more than one entity; but other speakers would disagree.

In other cases (in BrE, at least), it's sometimes clearer:

1. The band was formed in 1990.

— here, the reference is clearly to
0
0
Marius, I will. Thanks for the reference Emotion: smile .
0
0
MrPedanticHello Magda

In BrE, you might find either. "Has" presents the band as a single entity; "have" as a collection of entities. I would myself say "have", as "playing together" implies more than one entity; but other speakers would disagree.

In other cases (in BrE, at least), it's sometimes clearer:

1. The band was formed in 1990.
0

Related Questions