Collective Nouns are used to refer to a group of things:a bunch of keys, a flock of sheep, a herd of cows, a skein of geese, a shoal or school of fish
These words all replace the word 'group'. How many do you know? Test your knowledge with this short quiz:
1. a ________ of people 2. a _______ of wolves 3. a ________ of bees 4. a _________ of stamps 5. a _______ of football players 6. a __________ of chickens 7. a _______ of criminals 8. a __________ of ships 9. a _________ of seagulls 10. a _________ of soldiers 11. a ______ of elephants 12. a __________ of experts 13. a _________ of sailors 14. a ________ of actors 15. a _________ of ants 16. a _________ of computers 17. a _________ of employees 18. a ____________ of lorries 19. a _____________ of problems 20. a ___________ of puppies
If you want to look some of these up before doing the quiz, see Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_nouns_sorted_by_subject.
There are many unusual collective nouns for animals. Try this fun site at http://www.vigay.com/nouns/
Singular or Plural
Many collective nouns such as team, staff, family, class, jury and government can take either a singular or a plural verb. It depends if you see the noun as a collection of people or as a single unit. For example:
My family are having a celebration at Christmas. (= plural)The average British family is smaller than it was fifty years ago. (= singular)The team are doing well at the moment. (= plural)A team is a collection of players or people working together. (= singular)
