SC - Subject Verb agreement when the subject is collective n

Question

Hi,

Need help on Subject - Verb agreement when the subject is a collective noun.

I read somewhere that when the Verb applies individually to every member of the group, it should take a plural form and when the Verb applies to the group as a whole then it should take singular form.

Doubt:
The group of children from the school  has/have  never seen the ocean.

What is the answer and explanation to this.

Thanks

piyatiwari · Answer

The Group of children  has  never seen the see.

The tricks I use while solving such problems are:
- Omit unnecessary words/clauses in the sentence. Like adjectives or extra info etc.
- Only think of subject and verb. this will make the problem easier.

In this example, We know that the goup consists of many children, however "group" is singular. Hence we should use has.

Similarly, 
A flock of birds  is  flying.  but  Birds  are  fying.

11MBA · Answer

What about words like "variety" or "myriad".

I distinctly remember "a variety of..." used with a plural verb on the GMATPrep.

abandekar · Answer

This can be a better eg.

The staff  meets  tonight. - Staff collectively

The staff  have  different opinions. - staff represents individual staff members

What are your comments on this?

AtifS · Answer

Here is an example, which I studied in a grammar book.
as singular
The Committee  has  issued  its  report.

now as plural
The Committee  are  divided on one minor point.

But to be consistent we must say
The Committee  has  appended a note to  its  report. ( not their ).

Actually, a collective noun takes a singular verb when the collection is thought of as one whole; plural verb when the individuals of which it is composed are thought of.

here in your question's case, I think "The group of children" is thought of as one whole group who hasn't seen the ocean. It doesn't matter whether the group is from school or not, so the correct answer is

"The group of children from the school  has  never seen the ocean."

what matters most is that it is thought of one whole. ( all the group hasn't seen the ocean )

Hope it helps, do correct me if I am wrong ( would really appreciate ) with explanation.

AtifS · Answer

And yea as far as "The staff have different opinions" is concerned it is plural because individuals may have different opinions ( all of the staff as a whole can't have different opinions ). Because as I wrote before "plural verb when the individuals of which it is composed are thought of" , and here individuals of The staff are thought of. Hope it helps

SC - Subject Verb agreement when the subject is collective n

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