Number of Collective Nouns

Collective nouns are quite special in their reference to number. They express groups of people or animals. Most collective nouns have both singular and plural forms: family-families. The plural form always takes a plural verb. But the singular form may take a singular or a plural verb. The singular verb shows that the noun is acting as a unit, the plural verb shows that the members of the group are acting separately:

The family is large. The family are all at home.

Most common collective nouns are:

army audience band cast choir chorus class club college committee community

company council crew crowd enemy family firm gang government group management

majority minority orchestra population press school staff team union university

Also: the BBC, the Congress, England (the English team), Harrod’s, The United Nations, The United States, the Vatican, the Kremlin.

The following collective nouns also called nouns of multitude are used with the plural verb only: cattle, clergy, gentry, people, police, poultry, vermin, youth. Reference to individual members of the group is made thus: twenty people, fifty police or fifty policemen, ten heads of cattle.

Many collective nouns exist for groups of animals and birds:

a covey of quail-выводок, стая куропаток

a flock of birds, chickens, geese, pigeons-стая птиц, цыплят, гусей, голубей

a herd of cattle, sheep, cows, goats, deer-стадо скота, овец, коров, коз, оленей

a hive of bees-улей пчел

a pack of dogs, hyenas, wolves-свора собак, стая гиен, волков

a pride of lions-стая львов

a shoal of herring, mackerel-косяк сельдей, скумбрий

a swarm of ants, bees, flies-рой муравьев, пчел, мух

Nouns Used Only in the Plural

1. A number of nouns are used in the form of the plural although they denote one object .

2. To the group of nouns which are used only in the plural form belong:

a) The names of things which consist of two similar halves such as scissors, trousers, spectacles, glasses, scales, eye-glasses, tongs, pants, pantalets, pincers, pliers, plusfours, breeches, rompers, tights, wedgies, leggings, shorts, pyjamas, braces, jeans, binoculars, shears, tweezers:

These scissors are sharp. Your spectacles are on the table. Your opera-glasses are very good.

b) Many verbal nouns in -ing: earnings, sweepings, doings, goings-on, tidings (новости), lodgings (also lodging; but always board and lodging), beginnings (also beginning), losings, middlings, paper-hangings, surroundings, tailings, savings, etc.:

His lodgings were in a quiet street. She found a sixpence in the sweepings. These are indeed happy tidings. The children were paddling in the gutter and sailing thereon a fleet of potato parings (кожура).

с) The following nouns: goods, stairs, slums, wages, outskirts, con­tents, clothes, victuals [vitlz], eaves, hives, movies, nuptials, obsequious, oddments, odds, paratroops, perishables, plaudits, proceeds, runes, scobs, slops, smithereens, snow-shoes, soap-suds, tea-things, teens, theatricals, toils, viands, weeds, swipes, italics, lazy-bones, auxiliaries, constituents, durables, goods, customs, necessities, draughts, barracks, crossroads, headquarters, means, series, species, works, billiards, news, contents, congratulations, thanks, remains, premises, regards, archives, particulars, whereabouts:

The goods were received in due time. There are slums not only in the outskirts of London, but also in other parts of it. These stairs are made of marble. We get good wages. His clothes were wet: he had evidently been walking in the rain. Long icicles hung from the eaves of the houses.

Note. – The noun wages is often used in the singular (wage), especially in the following combinations: a living wage, a fixed wage, a minimum wage.

3. In some nouns the final -s loses the meaning of the plural inflexion and the noun is treated as a singular. This is the case with the names of sciences and occupations in -ics: mathematics, phonetics, optics, which are usually considered as singular:

Phonetics is the science of sounds. Mathematics is his strong point. Optics is a branch of physics; it treats of light.

These nouns are treated as plurals when practical application is meant:

His phonetics are excellent. The acoustics of this hall are good.

Politics, tactics, gymnastics, athletics, statistics are generally regarded as plurals.

4. With some nouns the usage wavers, and the noun is treated either as a singular or as a plural:

The gas-works is (are) situated on the river.