Lesson 16: Subject-Verb Agreement

with Tricky Nouns

Sometimes when speaking English, you can run into problems with structures
that look like they should be simple... but they make you think twice! For example:

"Everybody has problems" or "Everybody have problems"?

"The police is investigating" or "The police are investigating"?
"The news wasnt good" or "The news werent good"?

Today's lesson focuses on some of the tricky nouns in the English language, and
whether they are singular, plural, or both.

Collective Nouns
"Collective nouns" are nouns that refer to a group of people.

Take a guess as to the best word to complete each of these sentences:

The committee are / is discussing the matter.

The population was / were growing.
The volleyball team has / have some good
players.

The answers are is, was, and has. Collective nouns

usually take the singular form of the verb, because we
are referring to the group of people as a single unit.
Other collective nouns that take the singular form
include:

army, audience, class, club, committee, community, company, council, crowd,

department, electorate, family,* group, jury, orchestra, population, press,
public, school, team,* university

Exception: In British English, family and team often take the plural form of the verb.

www.espressoenglish.net
Shayna Oliveira 2014
Non-specific expressions like everyone, anyone, someone, and no one (and
everybody, anybody, somebody, and nobody) also take the singular form:

Everybody were was laughing.

Do Does anyone know what time it is?
Somebody have has been using my computer.
No one agree agrees with me.

Exceptions & Special Cases

1. Although the words public and population are singular, the word people is
plural (it is the plural form of "person"):

Most of the people are happy with the decision.

Most of the public is happy with the decision.
The people approve of the new president.
The population approves of the new president.

2. The word police is usually plural:

The police are looking for the suspect.

Police have released a statement about the crime.

If we want to talk about an individual member of the police, we can

say policeman, policewoman, or police officer.

A police officer questioned the witness.

A police questioned the witness.

3. The words staff and media are somewhat ambiguous.

Although the word media is technically plural (the singular

form is medium), in recent decades, it is treated as singular
when referring to the group of journalists, reporters,
photographers, etc.

The media is very interested in this story.

www.espressoenglish.net
Shayna Oliveira 2014
The word staff refers to the employees of a company. It is an uncountable noun (so
there is no such word as staffs) so it is usually treated as singular:

The staff is not pleased with the change in policy.

Our staff was trained in customer service.

Occasionally (and usually in British English) it is possible to use a plural verb with
staff when referring to individuals within the group:

Some of the staff are complaining about the change in policy.

Some of the employees are complaining...
Some of the staff members are complaining...

In American English, we would usually say "staff members" or "employees" instead.

4. The words pair and couple can be singular or plural.

Pair is usually singular, especially when talking about one object:

This pair of pants is very elegant.

Did you take the pair of scissors that was on the desk a
minute ago?

However, it can sometimes be plural when talking about a set of two separate
objects:

A pair of horses were pulling the carriage.

www.espressoenglish.net
Shayna Oliveira 2014
The word couple is usually plural, when in the expression "a couple of (objects)":

A couple of kids are playing in the street.

Only a couple of the tasks have been completed.

However, when talking about a romantic couple (husband/wife,

boyfriend/girlfriend, or same-sex couples), we can use the
singular verb because we consider the two people as one unit:

A very affectionate couple was were sitting behind me

at the movie theater.
If a couple starts start to fight a lot, then it's time to
see a marriage counselor.

Nouns that are only plural

The English language has a few interesting words that are only used in the plural.
For example, the word belongings when referring to someone's general
possessions or things:

She threw a suitcase of his belongings out the window.

The words glasses, goggles, pants, panties, and

scissors are also always plural - although we can
say a pair of... if we want to talk about only one:

Her glasses are blue.

Her glasses is blue.

I bought a new pair of pants.

I bought some new pants.
I bought a new pants / a new pant.

Clothes is always plural, and clothing is always singular:

His clothes were too casual for a job interview.

His clothing was too casual for a job interview.

www.espressoenglish.net
Shayna Oliveira 2014
When talking about money, we usually talk about the nouns earnings,
riches, and savings in the plural:

Their earnings were more than $100,000 last year.

Regarding location, the following words are always plural, and take plural verbs:

barracks
(a place where military people stay)
headquarters
(the central facility of a company or organization)
outskirts
(the outer parts of a city or town)
premises / grounds
(the property surrounding and belonging to a building)
stairs (each individual step can be called a stair, but the
whole sequence is called the stairs or a flight of stairs)

One final odd word that is always plural is suds - referring to a collection of bubbles
like you get from soapy water, or the foam on top of beer:

Irregular plural nouns

Be careful with irregular plural nouns - nouns that do not end in -S. These also take
the plural form of the verb!

The children are happy.

The children is happy.
My feet were hurting.
My feet was hurting.
www.espressoenglish.net
Shayna Oliveira 2014
You can find many more irregular plural nouns - such as stimuli, crises,
bacteria, and teeth - in this lesson:

http://www.espressoenglish.net/irregular-plurals-of-english-nouns/

Nouns that look plural but are not

So... what about the word news?

Although it ends with -S, it takes the singular form of the verb:

The news is on at 6.
I just heard some news that was very encouraging.

Note that news is also uncountable, so you can say "some news" or "a piece / an
item of news" but not "a news."

Some other examples of nouns that end in -S but are technically singular include:

Diseases like diabetes, measles, rabies

Sports and games like athletics, gymnastics, billiards,

dominoes, darts, and cards

Academic areas like economics, statistics, linguistics,

mathematics, physics, and politics

"Statistics" is only singular when talking about the area of

academic study:

Statistics was my favorite subject in school.

When talking about actual numbers or data, it is plural:

The statistics were reported in the newspaper.

Speaking of statistics... what about the word data?

www.espressoenglish.net
Shayna Oliveira 2014
There is actually a debate about this in the English language. Technically, data
is plural (the singular form is datum). However, in common usage, people often
treat data like information as an uncountable noun, which takes the singular
form.

So both forms are correct:

The data is accurate.

The data are accurate.

You can read more about the data debate here and here.

Finally, proper or official names of companies, organizations, countries, books, films,

and publications are always singular, even if they end in -s:

The United States has the world's largest economy.

Also: the Netherlands, the Philippines, the United Nations
The New York Times is an excellent newspaper.
Whole Foods is my favorite supermarket
The Birds was a great film.

Nouns with identical singular and plural forms

We have a handful of nouns in English whose singular and plural forms are the
same:

Animals: sheep, fish, deer

A deer is wandering around the meadow.

Five or six deer are wandering around the meadow.
There is no such word as deers

Species (= types of animals)

This species is endangered.

These species are endangered.

Series (= sequence of various similar things)

www.espressoenglish.net
Shayna Oliveira 2014
 This TV series is fascinating!
Several of my favorite series are no longer on TV.

Summary
Collective nouns usually take the singular form of the verb (except for police,
people, and some other special cases)
Nouns like belongings, clothes, pants, earnings, headquarters, and stairs are
always plural
Irregular plural nouns (like children and feet) always take the plural form
of the verb even though they do not end in -S.
A few nouns end in -S, but take the singular form of the verb, such as news,
diabetes, gymnastics, and physics
Data can be singular or plural
Proper or official names ending in -S are always singular
The nouns sheep, fish, deer, species, and series are both singular and plural

Writing Task
Write about a group, team, club, or community that you are part of (or have been
part of in the past). What was the interaction of the people like? How did you
participate? What activities did the group do together? Send me your text at
shayna@espressoenglish.net for feedback and correction!

www.espressoenglish.net
Shayna Oliveira 2014
Quiz Lesson 16 Subject-Verb Agreement
with Tricky Nouns
Circle the correct answer:
1. Physics was / were the only subject I didn't really understand in college.
2. This pair of socks don't / doesn't match these pants.
3. Do / Does anyone have a pen I could borrow?
4. When the couple next door is / are arguing, everyone on the street can hear
them.
5. My glasses has / have special lenses that get darker when theyre exposed to
sunlight.
6. If no one has / have any questions, we'll finish up.
7. Half of the population is / are overweight.
8. Everybody want / wants to be happy.
9. Some of the women is / are community leaders.
10. A few of the people in the group was / were upset about the change in plans.
11. All of the species on this list is / are extinct.
12. After I paid for the repairs to my car, my savings was / were almost gone.
13. The stairs wasn't / weren't very well-lit.
14. Gymnastics is / are quite a challenging sport.
15. The children in the class like / likes to read stories.
16. A couple of my teeth has / have cavities.
17. The United Nations don't / doesn't approve of that action.
18. None of the fish I caught is / are very big.
19. The school grounds is / are monitored by security cameras.
20. The audience is / are giving the singer a standing ovation.
21. These scissors isn't / aren't very sharp.
22. All of the news has / have been encouraging so far.

www.espressoenglish.net
Shayna Oliveira 2014
Answers Quiz Lesson 16
1. Physics was the only subject I didn't really understand in college.
2. This pair of socks doesn't match these pants.
3. Does anyone have a pen I could borrow?
4. When the couple next door is arguing, everyone on the street can hear them.
5. My glasses have special lenses that get darker when theyre exposed to
sunlight.
6. If no one has any questions, we'll finish up.
7. Half of the population is overweight.
8. Everybody wants to be happy.
9. Some of the women are community leaders.
10. A few of the people in the group were upset about the change in plans.
11. All of the species on this list are extinct.
12. After I paid for the repairs to my car, my savings were almost gone.
13. The stairs weren't very well-lit.
14. Gymnastics is quite a challenging sport.
15. The children in the class like to read stories.
16. A couple of my teeth have cavities.
17. The United Nations doesn't approve of that action.
18. None of the fish I caught are very big.
19. The school grounds are monitored by security cameras.
20. The audience is giving the singer a standing ovation.
21. These scissors aren't very sharp.
22. All of the news has been encouraging so far.

www.espressoenglish.net
Shayna Oliveira 2014