What is a collective noun?

The term “collective” means “ belonging to a group of people viewed as a whole.” A collective noun is a noun that has the same formal shape as a singular noun but refers to a collection of people or things. The examples of which are terms such as army, flock, and bunch. Although these words are all singular, they all refer to a collection of people or things. In most circumstances, singular verbs are used with collective nouns. This is because collective nouns refer to a group of persons or things as a single unit or entity.

Collective nouns talk about few people or tens, hundreds of individuals. For instance-

  1. A team( for e.g. eleven cricket players).
  2. A family (for e.g. grandparents, mother, father, children).
  3. A crew( for e.g. 50 sailors).

Other examples of collective nouns are- Crowd, committee, choir, group, jury, senate, audience, police etc.

Types of Collective Nouns

Collective nouns fall into 3 categories. They are to represent people, animals and things.

    For People:

  • Board of Directors
  • Cast of downs
  • Choir of singers
  • Class of students
  • Department of law
  • Firm of lawyers
  • Panel of experts
  • Senate of US
  • Society of people
  • Team of athletes
  • Troop of dancers
    For Animals:
  • Army of ants
  • Flock of birds
  • Flock of sheep
  • Herd of deer
  • Murder of crows
  • Pack of wolves
  • Hive of bees
  • School of fish
  • Pride of lions
  • Parliament of owls
  • Pod of whales
  • Team of horses
    For Things:
  • Bouquet of flowers
  • Bloom of flowers
  • Groove of trees
  • Fleet of ships
  • Forest of trees
  • Galaxy of stars
  • Pack of cards
  • Pack of lies
  • Pair of shoes
  • String of pearls
  • Range of mountains
  • Tub of water
  • Wad of notes
  • Vault of money

Collective Noun: Singular or Plural?

A collective noun can be either singular or plural. It basically depends on how a person watches the members of the group individually, for instance-

  • The jury has handed its verdict to the judge

So if you see the people operating jointly as a group, you will generally regard the collective noun as a singular thing i.e. it will have singular pronouns and singular verbs

  • The jury is currently debating amongst themselves and has yet to make a decision

And if you witness the people operating independently, you will most likely consider the collective noun as plural i.e. it will have plural pronouns and plural verbs

A collective noun can be plural in most circumstances. To put it another way, you can have multiple collective nouns. In a football game, for example, there are TWO teams. There are numerous families on the street. A verb which is plural is automatically employed in such instances, as in the following examples:

  • The sailors of the several ships docked at the time were continuously fighting
  • For more than over a week, the two companies have been in talks

To be effective, collective nouns must function as a single unit in the phrase, which implies they must be related to a single verb. This is referred to as verb agreement. Think about the following scenarios:

  1. “The board is deliberating on the new plan.” Even though “the board” refers to more than one person, the verb phrase “is deliberating” employs a singular verb rather than a plural word. Because the board’s individual members act in a singular, coordinated manner, use a singular noun and singular verb.
  2. The hive of bees was working hard to create honey.” “Was working” is a singular verb in this case. The plural verb “were working” is required in the absence of the collective noun “the hive,” as in “The bees were working hard to create honey.”
  3. “At the wedding, all of the families appear to have the same sense of style.” Although this statement refers to several families (thus the plural verb “seem”), each family is a separate collective noun.
  4. “Locust swarms are approaching the town.” Each swarm is behaving as a single entity in this sentence, but because there are multiple swarms, a plural verb is required.

Conclusion

Collective nouns are crucial in English grammar. It refers to a group or sum of persons, things, places or objects. These are used to indicate numerous objects at once. One must be careful with the subject-verb agreement when using a collective noun.