The group of students believe/believes this.

Question

the group of students believe/believes this.which one is correct

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Use the singular.

Clive

Yoong Liat · Answer

Anonymousthe group of students believe/believes this.

Which one is correct?

Hi Clive

If I am not wrong, BrE allows the use of the plural verb 'believe' if the group is perceived as individual members. Correct me if I am wrong.

Thanks.

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Yes, indeed. I wouldn't say either way is wrong (and I didn't say that!

)

But my feeling was this.

Instead of saying 'The students believe . . . ', the writer chose to say 'The group of students . . . ' It seems to me he wants to emphasize that they are a single group.

However, if you remove 'of students', I don't get the same feeling from the word 'group' by itself.

In other words, 'The group believe that ' sounds fine to me.

Clive

Yoong Liat · Answer

Thanks, Clive.

The group of students believe/believes this.

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