Number (singular and plural) (2)

Collective nouns followed by singular or plural verbs: 'government'

   1)      Words like government and family are collective nouns because they refer to groups.

   2)       We can use singular or plural verbs with nouns like committee, company, family, government and jury What will you be doing while the family is (or are) on holiday.

These words also have regular plurals: Many families are in need of help.

   3)       We can use singular or plural verbs with nouns like the majority, the public and the youth of today The public want (or wants) to know how they are (or it is) governed.

These words do not have regular plural forms: (Not *the publics')

   4)       We use only plural verbs with nouns like cattle, the military, people, the police and vermin:

There are too many people in the world.

Nouns with a plural form + singular or plural verbs: 'acoustics'

      1)     Nouns ending in -ics:

- athletics, gymnastics, linguistics, mathematics (maths) and physics take a singular verb:

Mathematics is not the most popular school subject. (Not 'Mathematics are')

- acoustics, economics, phonetics and statistics take a singular verb only when they refer to

the academic subject: Statistics is a branch of economics. (Not 'statistics are')

They take a plural verb when the reference is specific: Your statistics are unreliable.

   1)       Nouns like crossroads, headquarters, kennels, series, species and works (= factory) are singular when they refer to one: This species of moth is rare.

They are plural when they refer to more than one: There are thousands of species.

Nouns with a plural form + plural verbs: 'trousers'

   1)       These nouns have a plural form only and are followed by a plural verb:

glasses (= spectacles), jeans, pants, pliers, pyjamas, scissors, shorts, tights, trousers:

My trousers are torn.

All these nouns can combine with a pair of, (two) pairs of

I bought a pair of shorts yesterday and two pairs of trousers.

   2)       These nouns are plural in form and are followed by a plural verb:

belongings, brains (= intellect), clothes, congratulations, earnings, goods, manners, stairs:

Were those clothes expensive?