Saturday, November 22, 2025

collective nouns

A collective noun is a common noun that names a group of people, creatures, or objects. Did you know there are around 200 collective nouns in English?

A "simple" grammar rule for you: According to Grammarly,

How do you know whether a collective noun should be singular or plural?

Collective nouns are singular in form but plural in meaning. In American English, they are usually treated as singular and followed by a singular verb. However, many of them can be treated as plural in contexts where the emphasis is on the individual members or components of a group rather than on the group as a whole. In British English, collective nouns are much more frequently treated as plural.



And a few more:

Mammals

Birds 

Insects

Other animals


And after all this, if you're still wanting more information on collective nouns, check out this article on The Fascinating History of Collective Nouns.

Have a good day, y'all! (Is that a collective pronoun?)

6 comments:

  1. This is so interesting. My favorite collective noun has always been an exaltation of larks.

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    1. That is a good one. I like the galaxy of starfish.

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  2. I wonder that you call a gathering of bloggers?

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    1. We should put our heads together and see what cool word we can come up with!

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  3. I'm going to try to figure out a place where I can mention a "dazzle of zebras". I love that because they are rather dazzling.

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