Singular/plural verb forms

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 472.

We use singular verb forms with:

• nouns which refer to school subjects(e.g. economics, physics, mathematics/maths, etc.), sports(e.g. gymnastics, athletics, etc.), games(e.g. billiards, dominoes, darts, etc.), illnesses(e.g. measles, mumps, etc.) and with the word news.

The physicstest wasvery difficult.

The news ison TV at six o 'clock.

• plural nouns when we talk about an amount of money, a period of time, weight, distance,etc.

Three thousand miles is the distance from here to Montreal.

• group nouns such as jury, family, team, group, crew, crowd, class, audience, committee, council, army, club, press, government, company,etc., when we think of them as a single unit.

We use plural verbs when we mean the individuals who make up the group.

The Stone family livesin Brighton. The Stone family arestaying with us this weekend.

We use plural verb forms with:

• nouns such as: clothes, people, police, stairs, (good) looks, surroundings, outskirts, premises, earnings, wages, cattle, poultry, arms, ashes, barracks, congratulations, riches, etc.

Her earnings arequite high.

The police are lookingfor the bank robbers.

• nouns which refer to objects which consist of two parts, such as: trousers, binoculars, shorts, shoes, gloves, pyjamas, tights, glasses, earrings, socks, scissors,etc.

We do not use a/an or a number with these words. We use the phrase a pair of... instead.

The binoculars arein the top drawer. I need a new pair of glasses.

Group nouns (army, audience, class, club, committee, company, council, crew, crowd, headquarters, family, jury, government, press, public, staff, team etc)can take eithera singular or a plural verbdepending on whether we see thegroupasa wholeorasindividuals.

The staff of the company worksreally hard to increase production, (the staff as a group)

The staff were given a bonus at Christmas, (each member of the staff separately as individuals)