Hey there! This is TOP episode 95: Team Is OR Team Are? Collective Nouns

My name’s Ola and I am an English teacher. My goal is to help you start speaking English with confidence and get rid of speaking barriers. It’s time you started speaking English fearlessly! I’ve been there. I was unable to speak English for many reasons that now I call a language blockade. Today I teach people like you how to speak English with confidence. Go to my website for full transcripts and worksheets to each episode. Happy learning! 

Hello and welcome! Today we’re going to deal with something that can be really confusing. I hope after today’s episode you’ll be able to firmly say: the police are, the rich are, everybody is and many more. Collective nouns can be tricky. Let’s have them sorted out. Nothing strengthens the language blockade more than insecurity. If you’re not 100% sure what is correct you will wobble. Or, in the worst-case scenario, you will completely resign and step back from a conversation. We don’t want that. 

If your main problem is making mistakes, if your fear is around mistakes then well, that’s something we can fix. By learning. SO, let’s learn. Still, I have to remind you that mistakes are ok, they shouldn’t stop you from speaking. Ok, let’s break down this episode.

First of all I’ll tell you a definition of collective nouns. Then we’ll talk a bit about the differences between American and British English when it somec to collective nouns. Then we will dig deeper, and get to the point finally and see why and when we say the team is and the team are. Next, we’ll test your understanding of the theory. I’ll give you incorrect sentences and ask you to detect the problem to see if you’re able to sense the difference between singular and plural form the verb with a particular collective noun. After that we will talk about how to get out of this. In other words, how to avoid the whole fuss. It’s gonna by a path of least resistance, the easy way out but it’s effective. Finally I’ll tell you what happens if you make a mistake with collective nouns. Super important, so please stay with me till then. Of course I love exceptions, they only prove the rule, right? 

English if full of exceptions, every rule has to be broken. That’s obvious. Last but certainly not least you will say it out loud. You will speak English in this episode. I have prepared 16 sentences for you to listen to, retain and repeat out loud. 

Before we step into the main part please let me tell you really quickly how you can support this podcast. There is only one way to do it. For the time being. There are two ways. Ok, there are two ways. First, subscribe to TOPeople. Teacher Ola Podcast People, in order to do so go to teacherola.com/newsletter or download the newest worksheet at teacherola.com/95. Teacherola.com/95. The second way to help me grow this podcast is to tell someone. Tell someone about TOP, that’s all I’m asking for. Alright then let’s jump right in. 

Let’s state first what collective nouns are. A collective noun is a noun which refers to a group of people or animals or things, for instance: family, government, team, board, herd, committee, panel. 

Most collective nouns can be considered either singular or plural, depending on meaning. This dependency can be looked at from different perspectives, namely whether we are considering an American or British English. 

In American English words like family and team are treated as singular nouns, whereas in British English they are considered plural. Let me illustrate it with some examples:

American: My team is awesome. 

British: My team are working well. 

American: My family is obsessed with him. 

British: My family are  planning a barbecue. 

American: Spain  plays Brazil in the quarterfinal match later today.

British:  Australia  want to ensure their interests are safeguarded 

That is the easy way to explain the difference, but that’s not all. There is another layer of meaning to break down and you need to know that. Sometimes it comes down to whether you treat this collective noun as one body, one unit or as a group of individuals. 

So your focus is placed on each member of the group. I’d like to give you two examples. In the first one there’s a singular verb because I’m treating this collective noun as a unit, as one body. My collective noun here is government. Listen:

The government has made a final decision.

I treat the government as one unit. Of course this unit is made of lots of people but I don’t look at them that way. To me, they constitute one big body. The body, the unit, has made a final decision.

Now let’s delve into the second situation, when my collective noun means something else to me. My example collective noun is going to be family. Notice how I treat the family in my example as a collection of individuals. I am focused on each member of this group. 

My family have been preparing for the anniversary. 

See? I’m focused on each member of my family. They have been preparing for the anniversary. Not as a group, but as individuals.

Now I think it would be interesting for you to test whether you sense this difference. Listen to this sentence, does it sound right? 

The family is in disagreement.

Well, I’m afraid it doesn’t. Unless we think about them as one unit disagreeing with some external proposal for instance. But, if your idea you want to convey is that the members of the family keep arguing over something, then use a plural verb. The correct version is:

The family are disagreeing. 

One more test, listen to this sentence:

The crew has argued.

The same story. The crew members have argued, so let’s try again, with a plural form of the verb this time:

The crew have argued.  

You can always avoid the problem, there’s nothing wrong about that. If you feel confused and do not remember the rules, replace the collective noun with another, plural noun. 

Instead of saying  ‘the team’ say ‘the players’. Replace ‘family’ with ‘family members’, exchange ‘government’ with ‘members of parliament’ and so forth. 

If you don’t want the universe to explode don’t mix two styles in one sentence. If you choose to go with the American pattern, stick to singular forms with your collective nouns. By the way, the universe will not explode if you make a language mistake. I’m sure you know that. If you still struggle with fear of making mistakes go to episode 17. Episode 17: Fear of Making Mistakes While Speaking English. 6 Best Tactics to Overcome it. Teacherola.com/17. One of my faves, quite personal, early episode but obviously still valid. 

And now, coming back to collective nouns. Exceptions. I hope you saw it coming! If there’s a rule there’s an exception, right? Some collective nouns are always plural. Basically there is one I’d like to point out here, and it’s the police. The police are. The police have been investigating. This sounds counterintuitive especially to Poles since the police is always singular in Polish. 

The police have caught a serial killer. 

On the contrary, everyone, everybody, no one, and nobody are always singular. Grammatically in ‘everybody’ there is just one ‘body’ right? Even though there are lots of people in this group, grammatically there’s just one body. 

Everybody is happy. 

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

No one wants to hear about that accident.

We also have adjectives employed as collective nouns. They’re always plural, ok? Just like the police. Don’t fall into despair, I’m giving you examples right away:

The homeless need shelter for the winter.

The elderly deserve a pension.

The injured have been taken to the hospital.

The rich help the poor.

Finally we’ve reached the point where you speak English out loud. Please listen to those 16 sentences, repeating each of them along the way. I’ll say each sentence twice. Ok, shall we?

My team is awesome. 

My team are working well. 

My family is obsessed with him. 

My family are  planning a barbecue. 

The government has made a final decision.

My family have been preparing for the anniversary. 

The  government  has increased the tax rates again this year.

The family are disagreeing. 

The police have caught a serial killer. 

The homeless need shelter for the winter.

The elderly deserve a pension.

The injured have been taken to the hospital.

The rich help the poor.

Everybody is happy. 

Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

No one wants to hear about that accident.

Bravo! Thank you so much. Now, you’re not done yet. Go to your inbox and grab the worksheet that’s your homework. If you’re not a member download the worksheet at teacherola.com/95 and become one. It’s free, you can unsubscribe anytime but I hope you won’t because every Wednesday I send you a brand new worksheet along with the episode and a love letter from me. 

Thank you for listening, and please share this episode with just one person. Your friend, your family member. Let’s spread the message. No matter how enormous your language blockade is, no matter how big trauma you carry from school, how teachers failed you or how shy or introverted you are, you can start speaking English fearlessly. There’s zero doubt about it.

Please rate this in iTunes if you liked it. I’ll see you here next Wednesday. It’s gonna be a special episode, completely different from what you’re used to here. Happy learning. Take care! Stay fearless and say it out loud. Bye!