Learn the Rules for Subject-Verb Agreement With Collective Nouns

Not sure about the rules for subject-verb agreement with collective nouns? You’re not alone. Subject-verb agreement can be confusing, even for native English speakers! 

But there is good news! There are rules for when to use which verb form. And once you learn the subject-verb agreement rules for collective nouns, it gets much easier to understand when and why to use singular vs plural verbs.

In this article we’ll look at

• What makes something a collective noun

• The basics of subject-verb agreement 

• Rules for subject-verb agreement with collective nouns

• Tips and tricks for figuring out verb agreement in complicated sentences

The basics of subject-verb agreement for collective nouns 

In order to master subject-verb agreement for collective nouns, you’ll need to know some simple terms and concepts. 

What are collective nouns?

Collective nouns are words that refer to a pair or group of people, animals or things. A collective noun is any noun that refers to a group of things as a single unit.

Here are some examples of common collective nouns:

• Couple 

• Family

• Orchestra

• Audience

• Band

• Team

• Group

• Herd

• Troop

• Cache

• Squadron

• Company

These are common collective nouns, but something fun about English is that many different things have unique collective nouns to refer to them in a group, like a murder of crows, a dignity of canons, or a pride of lions. While English speakers generally accept and use more generic terms, it can be fun to find the less common specific collective nouns for various objects and groups of people – and it can add color to your speech and writing!

What is subject-verb agreement?

Subject-verb agreement is when you conjugate (or change) a verb to match its subject.

In general, subject-verb agreement in English is much less complex than in many other languages. In Romance languages, for example, there’s a different verb form for each pronoun – so the words I, you (singular), he, she, it, we, you (plural), and they are all followed by different verb forms. But in English, subject-verb agreement only uses two or three verb forms.

Take the verb “to go,” for example – aller in French – and compare it with English in the table below.

Subject-verb agreement in French vs English

See? Much less to memorize in English – only two verb forms, go and goes! It only really gets tricky when you have to worry about collective nouns.

What makes collective nouns complicated is that, depending on context, they might be followed by either the singular verb form that matches he/she/it or the plural verb form that goes with everything else.

Examples of subject-verb agreement in sentences

Here are examples of sentences with correct subject-verb agreement using each pronoun.

I am

sure.

You sing

beautifully.

He runs

fast.

We cook

every night.

You order

your entrees.

They pick

berries.

And here are examples of sentences with correct subject-verb agreement using collective nouns.

Singular: 

The team feels

confident about the direction for the project.

The choir sings

at the church on Sundays.

The herd of sheep goes

home at sunset.

Plural:

The cast have

been learning their lines at home.

The couple eat

dinner separately.

The herd of sheep are

running off in every direction.

Confused? Don’t worry, we’ll explain!

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Subject-verb agreement rules for collective nouns

Now that we’re all on the same page about collective nouns and subject-verb agreement, let’s talk about the grammar rules you need to know to put them together.

1. If the collective noun is acting as a unit, the verb is singular

Rule number one for subject-verb agreement with collective nouns is that any time the group moves as a unit, it’s treated as a singular noun.

Most of the time when you use a collective noun, you’re talking about something that a group of things, people or animals does together. A flock of geese takes off. An orchestra rehearses. 

If this is confusing, imagine replacing the collective noun with “it,” and use the verb form to match.

2. If the members of the group are acting individually, the verb is plural

In the less common case where the members of the collective noun are doing something separately, the verb should be plural. 

For example:

The orchestra are

tuning their instruments.

The cast aren’t

getting along.

The family each go

down a different aisle at the store.

Each orchestra member tunes their own instrument before they play, but when they play music, they play together. You couldn’t say, “The orchestra is tuning its instruments,” but you could say, “The orchestra is playing music by Bach.”

Similarly, when people or animals go in separate directions, they aren’t acting as a unit.

Worth noting: These rules cover standard American English. In British English, the rules are similar, but the use of the plural verb form with collective nouns is much more common, especially when referring to bands, sports teams, and government bodies and agencies (including police). 

There is otherwise no hard and fast rule in British English, but usage tends to depend on the local dialect and whether the sentence emphasizes individual members of a group or the group as a unit.

If you follow the rules in this guide, you’ll never technically make a grammar error, but if you’re living and working in the United Kingdom, you’ll likely use the plural verb form a little more frequently.

3. Not sure which verb form to use? Strip the sentence down to its basic parts

Sometimes you’ll have a long sentence and it’ll be harder to figure out the subject and verb to get them in agreement.

For example:

I’ve watched and am sure that the herd of sheep quickly heads back home as the sun sets each night.

There’s a lot happening in this sentence. It would be easy to get confused – should it be head or heads back home?

To solve this, take out all the non-essential pieces of the sentence. 

The herd heads home as the sun sets.

The herd moves as a unit. The singular is correct. If the herd of sheep were to disperse and head off to different local jazz clubs once the sun went down, you’d need to use the plural (and call the local news!). In that case, they would be a herd doing separate things, not moving together as a herd.

4. If your writing feels unclear, rephrase the sentence

Sometimes you’ll have a sentence where the phrasing just feels strange, even when you know the verb is correct and in agreement with the subject. In this case, the easiest thing to do is simply rephrase. A clearer sentence is never a bad thing!

Let’s say, for the sake of argument, that some members of the herd of sheep liked to visit a certain jazz club. You might say it like this:

After the sun sets, the herd of sheep leave to listen to jazz or head home.

But you could also rephrase the sentence to avoid the awkward verb:

After the sun sets, each sheep decides whether to go listen to jazz in town or head home.

Or:

After the sun sets, some sheep go listen to jazz while others head home.

You could even split it into two sentences, like so:

After the sun sets, the herd of sheep leaves. Some sheep go listen to jazz while others head home.

All of these options are grammatically acceptable – it’s up to you to decide which option best fits your writing style and communicates what you want to say clearly.

5. The singular “they”

Speaking of what’s grammatically acceptable, using they to refer to a singular person has long been forbidden by some strict grammarians. However, using they in this way has been common in the English language for centuries, and it has become more common and acceptable in the last several decades. 

Traditionally, some English teachers insisted on using “he or she” or “his or her” rather than “they” and “their,” but this is often awkward. The singular they is now common in everyday speaking and writing, and so English learners should familiarize themselves with its meaning and usage. 

The singular they is used almost exclusively to refer to people – less commonly animals, and never objects. It can be used when someone is unsure of the gender of the person they’re referring to (as seen in this sentence!) or to refer to a person who does not identify as male or female. When using the singular they, we still use the verb conjugation that agrees with the plural they – we do not change to the singular verb form.

Here is an example:

Correct

: 

When the new student gets here,

they are

going to be surprised!

(We don’t know if the student is a boy or girl, so we use “they.”)

Old-fashioned, but correct:

 

When the new student gets here,

he or she is

going to be surprised!

Incorrect

: 

When the new student gets here,

they is

going to be surprised!

(“They” must always be followed by the plural form of the verb.)

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Examples of subject-verb agreement with collective nouns

Now that you’ve reviewed the subject-verb agreement rules for collective nouns, take a look at some examples to help you remember.

Examples using collective nouns

Practice subject-verb agreement with collective nouns 

Feeling confident? Build your skills by practicing making sentences that use collective nouns.

Write your own examples for each of the sentence types in the table above using these collective nouns:

• Audience

• Band

• Group

• Couple

• Company 

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