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Reegis Posted 10 years ago
Grammar
The police is searching for / Police are trying to catch
Hello,
I know the rule that police is plural and we should always say The police are... But I found these two sentences in my program to learn English:
1) The police is searching for a tall balding man who was seen near the crime scene.
2) Police are trying to catch an arsonist who is terrorizing the city.
Does it mean that these sentences are simply wrong or are there some exceptions to the rule above? Of course I am not saying about sentences where police is interpreted as an adjective like in "The police department is...".
I know the rule that police is plural and we should always say The police are... But I found these two sentences in my program to learn English:
1) The police is searching for a tall balding man who was seen near the crime scene.
2) Police are trying to catch an arsonist who is terrorizing the city.
Does it mean that these sentences are simply wrong or are there some exceptions to the rule above? Of course I am not saying about sentences where police is interpreted as an adjective like in "The police department is...".
Top answer
" You might hear sentence #2 as a headline/part of a news item.
- " You might hear sentence #2 as a headline/part of a news item.
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3 Answers
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You're right that for #1, the more usual and common phrase is "the police are."
You might hear sentence #2 as a headline/part of a news item.
You might hear sentence #2 as a headline/part of a news item.
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ReegisThe police ... Police ...Either is correct.
ReegisThe police is ... Police areThe first one is wrong. If the intent was to refer to one policeman or policewoman, the usual phrase is "The police officer is/was ...".
CJ
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