Singular or plural

8.1

Collective nouns. Use the singular when the emphasis is on the whole entity:

The Government is considering the matter.

The Advisory Committee has met twice this year.

8.2

Use the plural when the emphasis is on the individual members:

The police have failed to trace the goods.

A majority of the Committee were in favour.

8.3

Countries, institutions and organisations take the singular:

The United States is reconsidering its position.

The Netherlands has agreed ...

The Commission was not informed.

8.4

A singular verb is common in English with a double subject if it is felt to form a whole:

Checking and stamping the forms is the job of the customs authorities.

8.5

Words in -ics. The sciences of mathematics, dynamics, kinetics, statistics and economics are singular. Statistics meaning simply “figures” is plural; so too is economics in the sense of “commercial viability”, as in the economics of the new process were studied in depth.

8.6

A statistic. The singular statistic is a back-formation from the plural and means an individual item of data from a set of statistics. It is now in common use in English.

8.7

'Data' is properly a plural noun and should therefore go with a plural verb.

8.8

The word none may take either a singular or plural verb.

8.9

When translating from languages that do not make a clear distinction between perfect and simple past, beware of writing Americanisms. British English has four uses for the perfect tense, three of which can be replaced by the simple past in US usage.

8.10

State up to the present. Example:

The Commission HAS BEEN (Eastern US: WAS) based in Brussels since the Communities were founded.

8.11

Event in indefinite past. Example:

The Council HAS already DISCUSSED (US: already DISCUSSED) this several times.

8.12

Present result. Example:

The Community HAS finally RESOLVED (US: finally RESOLVED) the issue.

8.13

In minutes and summary records, which are written using the present tense in French and other languages, you must use the past tense in English.

8.14

This means converting reported speech from the present to the past.

A simple example of English reported speech conventions:

Dutch spokesman: “We are concerned at the number of exceptions which have been included.”

Chairman: “The legal experts will be looking into this question.”

In reported speech, this becomes:

The Dutch delegation was concerned at the number of exceptions that had been included. The Chairman said the legal experts would be looking into the question.

8.15

Sequence of tenses. Simple past is normally replaced by past perfect (pluperfect):

Dr Nolde said the tests had been a failure.

You can avoid a clumsy string of past perfects in minutes where a speaker is reporting on another meeting or event. Start with At that meeting or On that occasion and continue with the simple past. Note that in order to maintain a logical sequence of tenses, indications of time may have to be converted as well as verbs:

Chair: “Last year, if you remember, we referred this problem to the subcommittee because we felt that legislation was inappropriate. It looks now, however, as if tougher measures may be needed, and I propose that we discuss these at tomorrow's session.”

This could become, for example:

The Chair reminded delegates that in 1996 the problem had been referred to the subcommittee, since legislation was then felt to be inappropriate. Now, however, she thought tougher measures might be needed and proposed that the committee discuss them at the following day's session.”

8.16

Streamlining. Lengthy passages of reported speech can be made more reader-friendly by avoiding unnecessary repetition of “he said/explained/pointed out”, provided the argument is followed through and it is clear from the context that the same speaker is continuing.

8.17

Auxiliaries. The auxiliaries would, should, could, must, might are often unchanged, but sometimes various transpositions are possible or required (e.g. must => had to; could => would be able to; should => was to).