LONGMAN ENGLISH GRAMMAR PRACTICE

2 Nouns

2.6 Number (singular and plural) (2)

2.6A Collective nouns followed by singular or plural verbs: 'government'

[> LEG 2.28-29]

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.

(Not 'There is too many people* 'There are too many peoples')

These words do not have normal plural forms, but note that peoples means 'national

populations': The peoples of the Arab World have a common language.

Write: Supply is, are, has or have. Give two forms where possibla

1 The government Ш.МЪ bringing in a new bill.

2 The company going to employ six staff.

3 All governments trying to control crime.

4 The jury trying to decide now.

5 The youth of today many advantages.

6 There vermin in this restaurant.

7 The military occupied the house.

8 The police interested in this case.

9 The public concerned about it.

10 How many people coming tonight?

11 The committee meeting now.

12 A lot of people signed the petition.

2.6B Nouns with a plural form + singular or plural verbs: 'acoustics' [> LEG 2.31]

Study:

Write:

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.

2 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.

Supply is, are, has or have.

1 The acoustics in this room ...M^.... very good. 8

2 This crossroads dangerous. 9

3 There four crossroads in our village. 11

4 Acoustics a subject I know little about. 11

5 Our company headquarters in London. 12

6 There many series of books on birds. 13

7 there any kennels in this area? 14

The statistics in this report inaccurate.

there any statistics for road accidents?

Many species of moth disappeared.

This species green and white spots.

Our works a good canteen.

My maths got worse and worse!

There crossroads every mile.