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Sometimes the subject (the person or thing doing the action of the verb) may seem to be plural, because it is a 'collective noun' - a singular (one) noun that groups together many things or people. For example:
A swarm of bees = one swarm, containing many bees.
A pack of cards = one pack, containing many cards.
This is an area of some debate, but as they are treated as a singular unit, collective nouns usually take the singular verb form. For example:
A herd of elephants was charging towards us.
The class is very noisy today.
My football team is doing really well.
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Examples:
My colleague and manager were both promoted today.
(Two people = plural subject.)
Rupert and Jane are football fans but Colin prefers shopping.
(Two people = plural subject, takes the plural verb 'are'; one person = singular subject, takes the singular verb 'prefers'.)
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Example:
The bag of shopping was too heavy to carry.
(Bag of shopping = singular subject. Lots of shopping, but there's only one bag.)
|Remember: if you’re unsure which verb form to use, look at the subject carefully. Is the subject singular (one), or plural (many)? A singular subject requires |
|the singular verb form. A plural subject requires the plural verb form. |
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Problems with plurals in verb-subject agreement
Rs/L1.1
© BBC 2011
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