bmo said:I am confused:
My family is from Italy.
My family are very close.
My family is poor.
My family are poor.
My family is very grateful.
Are these all correct? When do you use "are" or "is?"
MikeNewYork said:In British English, it often depends on whether the speaker/writer sees the noun as a unit or as individuals. That seems to defeat the purpose of collective nouns, but that is how it is. 8)
tdol said:MikeNewYork said:In British English, it often depends on whether the speaker/writer sees the noun as a unit or as individuals. That seems to defeat the purpose of collective nouns, but that is how it is. 8)
Watch it. ;-)
You're mostly right, but your last comment is ill-informed. In British English, it depends whether you are talking about your family as a unit ("my family is from Italy") or as a collection of individuals ("my family are friendly" = "all the people in my family are friendly"; also "my family is friendly"). Although you can treat the family as a single unit (collective noun) or as a collection of individuals, it's still a collective form, and therefore doesn't defeat the purpose of a collective noun.In American English, collective nouns are almost always treated as singular. In British English, it often depends on whether the speaker/writer sees the noun as a unit or as individuals. That seems to defeat the purpose of collective nouns, but that is how it is. 8)
when you speak of your family or a family in general, you are talking about a single group. So, family is, is the correct usage. One exception is "the people in my family are crazy, nice......whatever. This is because you have changed the subject to a plural, people.
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