If France win()

[Sergey kos]

Good day, reading news about wc I wondered why 'If France win.. ' is used without 's'. Is nation considered a plural form, or 'If France wins' is also possible?

 

[Barque]

I wondered why 'If France win.. ' is used without 's'.

It depends on how you look at it. You could look at it as a collection of individuals (the team) or even all French people (since the team represents them). Or you could look at it as a single country and use "If France wins".

Also, I think there may be a BE-AmE difference here, with BE preferring "win".

 

[SoothingDave]

Yes, it's an AmE-BrE difference. Americans generally view collective nouns as a singular. The staff is having a meeting today. Congress is working on spending bills.

 

[Rover_KE]

In BE, we say ‘Nottingham United are playing Chelsea Athletic next Saturday’.

 

[emsr2d2]

Good day. This is grammatical but very old-fashioned. "Hello" or "Hi" are fine if you really want to use a greeting.

I was reading some news about wc the World Cup and I wondered why 'If France win ... ' is used without an 's'. Is a nation considered a plural form, or is 'If France wins' is also possible?

Please note my corrections above.