From: Sean O'Halpin <sean.ohalpin@...>
Date: 2008-05-25T22:18:38+09:00
Subject: Re: #plural? or #singular?

On Sat, May 24, 2008 at 5:35 PM, Ray Baxter <ray.baxter@gmail.com> wrote:

> The collective noun in American English is singular, while in British
> English the collective noun is plural.

While this is completely off-topic, I feel impelled to correct your
assumption here: there is no such prescription in so-called 'British
English'[1]. I quite regularly hear people using both the singular and
the plural referring to the same collective noun even in the same
breath, e.g. "The government's in disarray. They're going to have a
tough time recovering from this defeat".

Regards,
Sean

[1] Here, in Britain we tend to think that what we speak is yer actual
original English, so it doesn't require qualification :)