Collective nouns

A collective noun is a noun that represents a collection of individuals and

things, such as:

a team (for example: eleven football players)

a family (for example: mother, father and two children)
a crew (for example: 100 sailors)
Collective nouns
Collective nouns are used to describe a group of the same things.
Collective nouns
Words associated with certain animals
A flock of birds, e.g. geese/pigeons;
a herd of cows, deer, goats;
a shoal of fish (or any particular fish, e.g. a shoal of herring/mackerel — note the
use of singular here);
a swarm of insects (or any particular insect, most typically flying ones, e.g. a swarm
of bees/gnats)
Note: a pack of... can be used for dogs or hyenas, wolves, etc.
Collective nouns
People involved in the same job/activity
• A team of surgeons/doctors/experts/reporters/scientists/rescue- workers
/detectives arrived at the scene of the disaster.
• The crew were all saved when the ship sank. [workers on a ship]
• The company are rehearsing a new production. [group of actors]
• The cast were all amateurs. [actors in a particular production]
• The staff are on strike. [general word for groups who share a place of work, e.g.
teachers in a school, people in an office]
Collective nouns
Things in general
Collective nouns
A collective noun can be singular OR plural, depending on how you see the
individuals in the group.

If you see the individuals acting together, as a whole, then you probably treat
the collective noun as singular (with singular verbs and singular pronouns),
for example:
• The jury has delivered its conclusion to the judge.

If you see the individuals acting individually, then you probably treat the
collective noun as plural (with plural verbs and plural pronouns), for example:
• The jury have not reached a conclusion because they are still arguing
among themselves.
Collective nouns
❑ In all varieties of English, the collective noun police is always treated as plural:
• The police are coming.
• The police were the first on the scene.
• The police have issued their report.

❑ In most cases a collective noun can itself be plural. In other words, you can have more
than one collective noun. For example, in a game of football there are TWO teams. In a
street there are many families. In such cases, a plural verb is automatically used, as in
these examples:

• Many ships' crews in port at the time were constantly fighting.

• The two companies have been negotiating for over a week.
Making uncountable words countable

You can make many uncountable nouns singular by adding a bit of or a piece of.
Similarly you can make such nouns plural with bits of or pieces of. (Bit is less formal
than piece.)
• She bought an attractive old piece of furniture at the auction sale.
• How many pieces of luggage have you got with you?
• I heard a really useful bit of information yesterday.
• Chopin wrote some wonderful pieces of music.
• Before you go to England I should give you two bits of advice...
• He spends all his money buying new bits of computer equipment.
Making uncountable words countable
Although bit and piece can be used with the majority of uncountable nouns there
are also a number of other words which can be used with specific uncountable
nouns.
Weather
• We have certainly had a good spell of summer weather this year.
• Did you hear that rumble of thunder?
• Yes, I did. It came almost immediately after the flash of lightning.
• I heard a sharp clap of thunder, then a few rumbles in the distance.
• A sudden gust of wind turned my umbrella inside out.
• There was a sudden shower of rain this morning.
• Did you feel a spot of rain?
Making uncountable words countable

Nature
• Look at the ladybird on that blade of grass!
• What’s happened? Look at that cloud of smoke hanging over the town!
• She blew little puffs of smoke out of her cigarette straight into my face.
• Let’s go out and get a breath of fresh air.
• Put another lump of coal on the fire, please. [lump can also be used with ‘sugar’]
Making uncountable words countable
• I had an amazing stroke of luck this morning.
• I’ve never seen him do a stroke of work. [only in negative sentences]
• I’ve never seen him in such a fit of temper before.
• The horse is the basic means of transport on the island.
• Tights must be the most useful article/item of clothing ever invented.
• There was an interesting item of news about France on TV last night.

The phrase a state of can serve to make uncountable nouns singular. The nouns
used with state are usually abstract and include chaos, emergency, tension,
confusion, health, disorder, uncertainty, poverty, agitation, disrepair, e.g., a state of
emergency.