Army, class, committee, company, crew, crowd, family, jury, government, party, team etc.
The family has breakfast.
The family are coming home on holiday.
The jury are trying to find a decision.
The jury has found a decision.
The football team plays football.
The football team have a shower.
Fractional expressions such as half of, a part of, a percentage of, a majority of are sometimes Sg and sometimes
Pl, depending on the meaning.
Half of the students are ready.
The same is true, of course, when all, any, more, most and some act as subjects. Sums and products of
mathematical processes are expressed as Sg and require Sg verbs. The expression "more than one" (oddly
enough) takes a Sg verb:
"More than one student has tried this."
- Some of the voters are still angry.
- A large percentage of the older population is voting against her.
- Two-fifths of the troops were lost in the battle.
- Two-fifths of the vineyard was destroyed by fire.
- Forty percent of the students are in favor of changing the policy.
- Forty percent of the student body is in favor of changing the policy.
- Two and two is four.
If your sentence compounds a positive and a negative subject and one is plural, the other singular, the verb should
agree with the positive subject.
The department members but not the chair have decided not to teach on Valentine's Day.
It is not the faculty members but the president who decides this issue.
It was the speaker, not his ideas, that has provoked the students to riot.
Such nouns as people, police, clergy are always plural
- The police have been looking for the thief.
- The clergy are always dressed in black.
What causes much greater trouble are nouns that do not change at all in the plural, i.e. one has to recognize the
plural from the context. Sheep and fish are two notorious examples:
There are two sheep in the meadow.
There are three fish in the pond.
We do not add -s to form the plural form. aircraft, spacecraft, and other -craft vehicles
- There are two aircraft prepared for landing.
cod: The cod are known to migrate in large numbers.
deer: Deer are easy prey for wolves.
sh: Three sh swim in the sh tank.
offspring: The fox gave birth to ve offspring.
pike: The pike are big freshwater predatory sh.
salmon: Salmon are often seen jumping over dangerous waterfalls.
sheep: One sheep, two sheep, three sheep
shrimp: Shrimp are among the most commonly eaten animals.
swine: Swine are reared extensively in Europe.
trout: The trout are sh related to the salmon.