Quote:
Originally Posted by MacEachaidh
I agree with your points, samhy. There seems to be a tendency in modern English to treat collective nouns as plural, treating them as if the sentence is speaking about the multiple elements in the collective, rather than the collective itself. That's a break with traditional grammar, but it's growing in usage.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
This is a difference between British and American English. British English normally treats collective nouns (companies, etc) as plural; American English as singular. Thus in British English you would normally have "Microsoft are releasing a new product", but in American English "Microsoft is releasing a new product".
If you look at "The Financial Times" (a quintessentially British business newspaper) you'll find that companies are always referred to in the plural.
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At first I was surprised by Mac Eachaidh's comment, since I clearly remember our junior high English teacher warning us to use the plural for things like a team or the police. In French, those nouns refer to an entity so the following verb is always singular, hence the special attention we have to put on those words when using them.
But thanks to HarryT's comment that made sense, because that was British English we were taught.
Side note: I was tutoring a 13-year boy last year and it was interesting to see that his textbooks were sometimes pointing out differences in spelling, pronunciation or words between British English and American English.