Singular. Is.

That's right.

Hi guys,

To me, both 'is' and 'are' are possible. I'd say it's one of those words that can be singular or plural, depending on whether you are thinking about it as a single entity or as a group of people. eg team, government.

Best wishes, Clive

CliveHi guys,

To me, both 'is' and 'are' are possible. I'd say it's one of those words that can be singular or plural, depending on whether you are thinking about it as a single entity or as a group of people. eg team, government.

Best wishes, Clive

All the grammarians I know agree with you.

Cheers
CB

Simple Search of BNC-World

The general public is just going to laugh at this.



The public is awakening to the fact that our Government has blundered in its treatment of Eastern affairs.



Our public are, when we polled them, down the middle, half liking them and half hating them, so on balance we'd rather not have th

Yes, I think this illustrates Clive's point. The plural is used when we consider a diversity of opinions, the singular when we consider the public as a single entity.

Now I understand

I always trip over this Br/Am difference, even though I'm more conscious of the other differences now. American use is going to be the singular almost all the time. I keep forgetting that BrE uses the plural for companies and government in far more cases than Americans and that that should apply to other nouns like "public" as well. Sorry for the confusion - let me revise my original post

Americans like to do things differently from the British in English. When it is 'colour' in BrE, it is 'color' in AmE. It would appear that the Americans like to simplify spelling. But when the British spell 'fulfil', the Americans spell 'fulfill'.