What is a collective noun?

A collective noun is a common noun that names a group of people, creatures,

or objects:

The audience at the midafternoon showing was especially appreciative of the

comedic parts of the movie.

Traffic on the road was temporarily stopped by a flock of wild turkeys that
was making its way across.

Paleontologists found a set of fossils in Argentina from the bones of an

Achillesaurus or a closely related species.

Are collective nouns singular or plural?

Although they refer to multiple things at once by definition, collective nouns

are singular in form. This can make choosing the right verb to use with a
collective noun when it’s the subject of a sentence or clause (that is,
maintaining subject-verb agreement) a bit tricky—it’s almost like they’re plural
and singular at the same time!

In American English, collective nouns more often than not appear with
singular verbs:

The film festival’s selection committee consists of filmmakers, film

programmers, and critics.
Residents of the town said a drove of pigs that had escaped from a local
farm was destroying their yards and gardens.

However, it’s also correct—and quite common—to treat a collective noun as

plural when what is being communicated is that the members or components
of a group are acting individually rather than as a unit:

My family mostly have their birthdays in the fall and winter.

The choir were all warming up in different keys.

Among the student body, the majority are Californians.

In British English, it’s far more common to treat collective nouns as plural:

The band were on tour all summer.

It seemed like the staff were always taking their lunch break when we
stopped by the shop.

3 tips on how to use collective nouns

As we’ve seen, keeping collective nouns in agreement with the verbs they
appear alongside can be tricky. Once you’ve mastered that, collective nouns
are simple to use in your writing. Here are a few more tips to help you along.

1 Lean toward singular

A good rule of thumb for using collective nouns in American English is to err
on the side of treating them as singular. In other words, unless there’s a
compelling argument for making them plural—as in the examples in the
preceding section, in which the emphasis is on the individual members of the
group—it’s always appropriate to use a singular verb with them.

The club meets every Wednesday after school.

The pod of dolphins was approaching the ship.

Note that there are a few exceptions to this rule of thumb, such as the
collective noun police, which always takes a plural verb.

The police were already there when we arrived on the scene.

2 Make the subject plural

If you are struggling with a sentence because a particular collective noun /

plural verb combination sounds awkward to your ear, one option is to turn the
collective noun into a more straightforward plural by adding “members of” or
similar. Compare the two examples below. In the first, the collective
noun jury is the subject. In the second, the plural noun members has become
the subject. Both sentences are grammatically correct, but in the second, no
reader will trip on or question the use of the plural noun were.

The jury were staying in hotel rooms while they were sequestered.

The members of the jury were staying in hotel rooms while they were
sequestered.

3 Be consistent
When you decide whether to treat a collective noun as a singular or a plural,
make sure you’re consistent about its number throughout any section of
writing that it appears in. For example, if you use a pronoun to refer back to
the collective noun, it should also agree with the collective noun and the verb
in number.

The company is doing very well this quarter. It has recouped most of its
losses from last winter.

The group of passengers will scatter as soon as they disembark.

Examples of collective nouns

Many collective nouns—such as group, bunch, couple, and pair—are general

enough or flexible enough that they can be applied to people, animals, or
objects.

A bunch of my coworkers are going to that concert.

Sam picked up a bunch of magazines before getting on their flight.

Other collective nouns are more specific in what they refer to.

Common collective nouns for people

 army

 audience

 band
 board

 cast

 choir

 class

 club

 coalition

 committee

 community

 company

 congregation

 corporation

 council

 crew

 crowd

 family

 firm

 gang

 group
  jury

 majority

 minority

 mob

 orchestra

 panel

 parliament

 party

 public

 school

 staff

 team

 troupe

Common collective nouns for objects

 array

 assortment

 bouquet
  caravan

 collection

 constellation

 fleet

 forest

 galaxy

 heap

 parcel

 pile

 range

 series

 set

 shower

 stack

 stream

 wad

Common collective nouns for animals

  brood

 cloud

 colony

 flock

 gaggle

 herd

 horde

 litter

 pack

 pride

 school

 shoal

 swarm

Collective noun FAQs

What is a collective noun?

A collective noun is a common noun that names a group of people, creatures,

or objects.
How many collective nouns exist in English?

There are around two hundred collective nouns in English.

How do you know whether a collective noun should be

singular or plural?

Collective nouns are singular in form but plural in meaning. In American

English, they are usually treated as singular and followed by a singular verb.
However, many of them can be treated as plural in contexts where the
emphasis is on the individual members or components of a group rather than
on the group as a whole. In British English, collective nouns are much more
frequently treated as plural.

How do you know what pronoun to use to refer to a collective

noun?

A pronoun that refers back to a collective noun should agree in number with
that collective noun and, if the collective noun is acting as the subject of a
sentence or clause, with the verb.