STC Phoenix Chapter Website

Ms. Grammar

Collective nouns – singular or plural?

A chapter member recently asked Ms. Grammar about collective nouns and whether they are singular or plural. The example given was from an article about the band ColdPlay: “…Coldplay have had to move the dates of some of the previously-announced North American shows. The band have experienced some production delays…”

Ms. Grammar’s first response was to grit her teeth. “Coldplay” represents a group – clearly a singular noun, as is “band.” Thus, using a plural verb form is clearly wrong. Or is it? “Coldplay” is a group’s name, as is “The Rolling Stones.” If both were discussed in the same article, would you want these names treated as singular or plural? For example, “Coldplay (are, is) delaying (its, their) show, but the Rolling Stones (are, is) not delaying (its, theirs).”

Similarly, sports team names may be singular or plural (Phoenix Suns, Utah Jazz). Teams are often discussed together, as in “The Suns (have, has) a 6-0 record, while the Jazz (are, is) 3-3.”

One Chicago Manual of Style editor leans toward using plural for team names (and presumably band names). This editor says that this exception is more common in British English, and sanctions it with a usage note from the American Heritage (AH). AH states that “a collective noun… takes a plural verb when it refers to the members of the group considered as individuals, as in ‘My family are always fighting among themselves.’” (4th ed.)

Using this guideline, the band members are delaying the concert, thus a plural verb should be used. In the second example, though, do the members have the record, or the group? To Ms. Grammar, it’s the group. Because “The Phoenix Suns has a record…” just does not work, however, the safe thing would be to rewrite the sentence and avoid the issue altogether.”The Phoenix Suns record is 6-0, while the record for the Jazz is 3-3.” Problem solved!

If you want to test yourself against national media, try these sentences, which I recently heard on the radio or read on the Web:

1. The Friends of NPR (is, are) scheduling a fund-raising dinner.
2. Ra Ra Riot (return, returns) from an emotional roller coaster with a fantastic new CD.
3. The Utah Jazz (is, are) on a roll.

For a thorough discussion of collective nouns, check this Grammar Bytes! article:
http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/collectivenoun.htm.

Answers: 1) is; 2) return; 3) is. Just those reporters’ opinions, mind you.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 13th, 2008 at 1:06 am and is filed under Rough Draft Newsletter, September/October 2008 Issue. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.