''Clergy''

[Rachel Adams]

Hello.

Do you use the word ''clergy'' with both singular and plural verb in BrE?

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello.

Do you use the word ''clergy'' with both singular and plural verbs in BrE?

Most of us don't use the word "clergy" much at all. You'll see it in the media but in standard everyday language, it's not that common. I'd always say "He's a priest/vicar/bishop" and similar, not "He's a member of the clergy".

 

[Rover_KE]

Like 'police', it takes a plural verb.

The police have set up roadblocks.
The clergy have protested about abortion.

 

[Rachel Adams]

Like 'police', it takes a plural verb.

The police have set up roadblocks.
The clergy have protested about abortion.

In Virginia Evans' book Use of English I read that ''team'', ''clergy'', ''government'', etc can be used with both:shock:.

 

[Rachel Adams]

Had you read that before you posted your question?

I think we have asked you before to put titles of books in quotation marks or italics.

I remember putting a book's title in quotes once but they were removed by a teacher. That's why I stopped quoting book titles.

No, I started searching for nouns that take both verbs. And came across "clergy" and other words.

 

[tedmc]

Clergy is a collective term. The singular is clergyman or clergywoman.

 

[emsr2d2]

I remember putting a book's title in quotes once but they were removed by a teacher. That's why I stopped quoting book titles.

Ideally, they should be in italics. However, putting them inside quotes is better than nothing.

 

[Rachel Adams]

Clergy is a collective term. The singular is clergyman or clergywoman.

Then why are they listed like that if its wrong?

 

[emsr2d2]

Some countable nouns have only a plural form. You can read more HERE and HERE. (Note that not all the examples listed are countable.)

 

[Drear Pooson]

Clergy is a collective term. The singular is clergyman or clergywoman.

Or cleric.



​(Not a teacher.)

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

I remember putting a book's title in quotes once but they were removed by a teacher. That's why I stopped putting quotation marks around book titles.

No, I started searching for nouns that take both verbs. And came across "clergy" and other words.

Book titles (and movies and plays and CDs and magazines) are in italics — like Star Wars.

Short story titles (and songs and articles and essays) are in quotation marks — like "The Dead."

In the US, clergy is singular and uses singular verbs: The clergy is divided on lots of issues.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

. . . and everybody would follow its teachings slavishly.

Except, of course, for us.