Ashley Campbell's Writer's Log
Collective responsibility
(when groups are singular or plural)
“The couple has agreed to give what is billed as their first and very possibly their last media interview.” Did you wince? Grit your teeth? I did, when I read that sentence in the New Zealand Herald. In one sentence, “couple” was both singular (has) and plural (their) — a painful grammar crime.
It's caused by confusion about when collective nouns are plural and when they are singular. And there's a lot of it about.
Let’s start with the basics: collective nouns are groups of people or things. The group is singular, but it is made up of several individuals. A couple* has two people, a family several. A shoal of fish, a flock of birds, a team of footballers — the list goes on (and this site gives an interesting list of animal collective nouns).
People and animals often act collectively, moving in the same direction towards the same goal. But even when they’re part of a group, they can still act as individuals, all going in different directions. And that is the key: are you referring to the group or to the individuals? If you’re referring to the group, your collective noun is singular. If you’re referring to the individuals, your collective noun is plural.
So, here we go: The Campbell family is spread across the globe. We’re referring to the entity as one, so the family is singular. But the Campbell family argue about where to go for their holidays. Cohesive units don't argue but disagreeing individuals do, so this time they're plural. The committee has decided to defer the decision — one entity taking one decision is singular. But the committee sat down in their seats — we’re referring to the individuals, so treat this committee as plural.
There are grey areas. Sports teams have become accepted as plural. It’s a news convention that may have arisen because so many sports teams have plural names (“the All Blacks is” just hurts). But the All Blacks’ management is singular when acting as a cohesive unit, and the Ruby Union is never plural (however, its members are).
Governments, companies and councils are almost always singular, even if the occasional employment lawyer tries turning one of them into a plural collective noun. (And they're never people.)
As for couples, the Economist’s style guide insists they are plural and I agree. Here’s why: when we refer to a human couple we are always referring to the individuals, as we mostly are when we refer to a nuclear family. Don’t believe me? Try this:
“The couple has agreed to give what is billed as its first and very possibly its last media interview.” When we make the verb (has) and the pronoun (its) agree as singular, we know two people aren't "it", they're they, and therefore plural. (*Above I referred to a theoretical couple, not two actual people with names, so it was singular.)
When you are unsure, do what I’ve done and reword your sentence so any verbs and pronouns are singular. If you wince when you read it, that collective noun should be plural. Alternatively, insert the words “members of” before your collective noun then, hey presto, it's plural.
But don’t refer to one collective noun as both singular and plural in the same sentence. That’s just irresponsible.
© Ashley Campbell, 2009 |
