I can't believe I never knew this until just now.

[prillalar]

I always thought the singular vs plural status of collective nouns was one of those NA vs UK things. But then I found this.

This is from a style guide on a Canadian government site, so it's possible it only applies to Canada. But I'm in Canada, so that's fine.

Collective nouns such as board, cabinet, commission, committee, council, government, group, majority, number, and series take their verb or pronoun in either the singular or plural, depending upon the context in which they are used. Use the plural when the action is taken by the individual members considered in their separate capacities, and use the singular when the group acts or thinks as a whole:

The committee have discussed all aspects of the case and have not yet reached agreement.

The committee approved the motion unanimously and directed its subcommittee to take immediate action.

Is it different where you live?

Comments

[ellensmithee.livejournal.com]

I thought Canadian English had a lot of little grammatical things that they did the BE instead of the AE way. I got into an argument with a Canadian friend once on how to pronounce "shone." He thought I was insane for pronouncing it like "bone" and I'd never heard of pronouncing it like "gone."

[jennilee.livejournal.com]

Almost everything Canadians do (language-wise) is done the British way. I am also Canadian and was completely shocked at what you just said here (shone as in bone instead of gone). I actually asked an American friend I was chatting with at the moment if that was true, because I couldn't believe it. O_o