Collective nouns

We use collective nouns to refer to a collection of individual people, creatures or objects.

Examples:

• team
• government
• flock
• committee
• class
• jury

In British English, we can treat a collective noun as either singular or plural, depending on the context.

Examples:

• The committee has decided (meaning that the decision was taken by the committee as a whole).
• The committee are still debating the issue (meaning that members of the committee are acting as individuals).  

In American English, a collective noun is almost always treated as singular. In that case, the example above would become ‘the committee is still debating the issue’. Some speakers of British English prefer that usage but many almost always treat collective nouns as plural.

Examples:

• The committee have decided.
• The government are taking a lead.
• The class are noisy today.

In British English we almost always use the name of a sports team as if it were plural:

Example:

• Manchester United are playing Chelsea.
• England are playing Australia.

There are many collective nouns that are closely associated with particular groups.

Examples:

• a flock of sheep
• a herd of cattle
• a gaggle of geese
• a swarm of bees
• a crowd of spectators
• a gang of thieves