Re: Collective nouns revisited

[rkennet -at- IBM -dot- NET]

** Reply to note from "A. J. Fite" <ajfite -at- MAIL -dot- TELIS -dot- ORG>         Wed, 18 Jun 1997 08:23:33 -0700
> This discussion dealt with the emerging trend for speakers of
> American English to pair collective nouns with singular verbs ("the staff
> is"), while speakers of British English combined collective nouns with
> plural verbs ("the staff are").
>

Most British speakers follow the advice in Fowlers Modern English Usage:
"Such words as army, fleet, Government, company, pack may stand either for a single entity
or for the individuals who compose it, and are called nouns of multitude. They are treated as
singular or plural at discretion - and sometimes naturally without discretion."


> My question: is a company name a collective noun?  In other words, would it
> be appropriate for speakers of British English to say "IBM are" or
> "Microsoft were?"

Microsoft were? Do you know something we don't?  Should we panic?

Rod Kennett
rkennet -at- ibm -dot- net

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