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Collective Noun
Phonetics:
kəˈlektɪv
naÊŠn
Pronunciation:
Linking Words: The Art of Naming Groups: A Look at Collective Nouns in English Language
Comprehensive Definition, Description, Examples & RulesÂ
What is a collective noun is a very interesting question in English grammar. We can readdress this question by stating that some singular terms can be changed into plural, but we cannot readdress plural as a group as it doesn’t define the quantity. Certain words tell us things, or people are in a group with different terms. These different terms are known as collective nouns.Â
Definition Of Collective Nouns
What are collective nouns? According to Collins dictionary, the answer to this question refers to “a noun, as a herd, jury, or clergy, that appears singular in formal shape but denotes a group of persons or objects.
Importance Of Understanding Collective Nouns In Writing And Communication
Collective nouns hold significance in English grammar. One can get certain benefits while using collective nouns in writing or speech.Â
- Efficiency and fluency: Collective nouns make plural or grouped nouns efficient to understand and fluent to read and write, making the proficiency much easier to understand.Â
- Clarity: It can be used for better clarity and communication so that people reading or writing aren’t confused by different plural forms of nouns.Â
- Flow: Using collective nouns will bring flow and uniformity to the writing without interrupting sentences or paragraphs.
- Professionalism: using collective nouns at the right places can showcase professionalism and proficiency while making the writer’s approach more formal to the crowd.
Explanation Of Collective Nouns And How They Function In Sentences
Collective nouns/ countable nouns/ noun groups meaning very simple to understand in an explanation. Suppose you want to say there are many books in the library. Looking at the sentence, we can understand that the singular form of the book has been converted into books. But the word “books” is not specifying that there are one or more books or groups of books. A singular word can easily be written instead of books, i.e., a pile of books. ” Pile of books” can be much more communicative and better while increasing efficiency and flow in a sentence. A person using collective nouns should always remember that they should use the correct form of verb words while using these collective nouns.
Examples Of Collective NounsÂ
Here are some noun group examples one can look for:Â
- Team: A group of people with the same set of missions or goals.
- Family: A group of blood-related people representing a family tree together.
- Flock: A group of birds staying together.
Types Of Collective Nouns
There are many types of collective nouns in the collective nouns list. Different types of collective nouns are segregated into different types of lists for us to understand better. Let us see together different types of collective nouns in the list of collective nouns.Â
Animal Collective Nouns
Animal collective nouns are the type of nouns that are used to address the animals in a group living together or having a specific personality trait.Â
Examples Of Animal Collective NounsÂ
Here are some examples of animal collective nouns examples. Take a look below:Â
- Herd: a group of herbivore farm animals or poultry animals.
- Pack: a group of hunting animals who always stays together and hunt together
- Swarm: a large group of insects flying and living together in the ecosystem
- Flock: it is mostly indicated by a group of birds living together
- Pod: a group of dolphins or whales are indicated by this word.
- Colony: any small ground insects that are known as social insect, such as bugs and termites
- Troop: a group of monkeys, baboons, chimpanzees, etc.
How Animal Collective Nouns Function In Sentences
Even when these words are used to refer to something in a group in a plural sense, the verb agreement should always be used as a singular. It is because the group is already referred to in a singular sense. No matter if the group consists of many animals together, it’s one group. If there are many groups together, the verb agreement can be plural.
Commonly Used Animal Collective Nouns In English
Here are some commonly used animal collective nouns in English. Take a look below:
- Herd: a group of herbivore farm animals or poultry animals.
- Pack: a group of hunting animals who always stays together and hunt together
- Swarm: a large group of insects flying and living together in the ecosystem
- Flock: it is mostly indicated by a group of birds living together
- Pod: a group of dolphins or whales are indicated by this word.
- Colony: any small ground insects that are known as social insect, such as bugs and termites
- Troop: a group of monkeys, baboons, chimpanzees, etc.
People Collective Nouns
It is referred to as collective nouns, which indicates groups of people in a different situation with various motives.Â
Examples Of People Collective Nouns
Here are some examples of collective nouns examples. Take a look below:Â
- Team: a group of individuals with the same motive or a goal working in a specific direction.
- Family: a group of individuals who are blood-related and are living together and sharing a bond.
- Crew: a group of people working together or doing a labour job
- Staff: colleagues are working together in a specific department for a company.
- Committee: a group of people working for a college or school, or society’s interest gathering and more
- Crowd: a group of people in a random area
- Assembly: a formal gathering of individuals
- Band: a group of people who perform musical stage shows
- Choir: a group of people who sings together
- Class: a group of people who studies or researches over same topic
How people collective nouns function in sentences
Even when these words are used to refer to something in a group in a plural sense, the verb agreement should always be used as a singular. It is because the group is already referred to in a singular sense. No matter if the group consists of many animals together, it’s one group. If there are many groups together, the verb agreement can be plural.
Commonly used people collective nouns in English
Object Collective Nouns
An object collective noun refers to a group of objects without any gender. Such as, stack of books, file of books and more.Â
Examples of object collective nounsÂ
Here are some examples of object collective nouns examples. Take a look below:Â
- Set: something that is indicated as a unit or group. Such as a set of six dishes and a set of two seasons in this TV show.
- Collection: something with the same interest or identification, such as a collection of art or figures.
- Group: it is a basic term for grouping everything that cannot be combined into a word.
- Array: the formal display of a systematic grouping with probably numbering or specific increasing and decreasing order.Â
- Fleet: something that denotes a group of vehicles or machinery of the same organization.Â
- Bundle: a group of objects that are packed together.
- Cluster: a group of objects that can be seen in many varieties tightly packed together.Â
- Batch: a group of objects classified by specific characteristics or time.
- Stack: an arrangement of something in a uniform manner
- Suite: a group of rooms that serves as one.
How object collective nouns function in sentences
Even when these words are used to refer to something in a group in a plural sense, the verb agreement should always be used as a singular. It is because the group is already referred to in a singular sense. No matter if the group consists of many animals together, it’s one group. If there are many groups together, the verb agreement can be plural.
Commonly used object collective nouns in English
Mixed Collective Nouns
Mixed collective nouns are a set of particular roles or people together. Such as the government or jury.
Examples of mixed collective nounsÂ
Here are some examples of mixed collective nouns examples. Take a look below:Â
- Jury: a group deciding upon the perpetrator or giving judicial advice.Â
- Committee: a group of individuals coming together for a specific task or preparation.
- Government: a group of individuals, irrespective of religion and business, coming together to run a country for its welfare.Â
- Board: a group of people working together making decisions in the company’s interest.
- Panel: a group of people coming together to dissolve any issues or fallacies in the company.Â
- Council: a group of people who manage the Advisory Committee in the academic field
- Cabinet: a group appointed for specific tasks in a specific department.Â
- Task force: a group of people who come together for specific task completion or project.
- Delegation: a group of people representing their thoughts by representing a specific organization.
- Management: a group working together as supervisors and managing the business.Â
How mixed collective nouns function in sentences
Even when these words are used to refer to something in a group in a plural sense, the verb agreement should always be used as a singular. It is because the group is already referred to in a singular sense. No matter if the group consists of many animals together, it’s one group. If there are many groups together, the verb agreement can be plural.
Unusual Collective Nouns
Unusual collective nouns are lesser-known collective nouns which consist of animals, people, or objects together. It is very imaginative and creative and is often used for stage shows and scripts.
Examples of unusual collective nouns (e.g. a murder of crows, a parliament of owls)
Here are some examples of unusual collective nouns examples. Take a look below:Â
- Murder: A group of crows.
- Parliament: A group of owls.
- Exaltation: A group of larks.
- Shiver: A group of sharks.
- Smack: A group of jellyfish.
- Ambush: A group of tigers.
- Clowder: A group of cats.
- Gaggle: A group of geese on land.
- Skein: A group of geese in flight.
- Knot: A group of toads.
Explanation of the origins and history behind unusual collective nouns
The unusual collective nouns are often based on the history and origin of previous linguistics. The words have evolved through roots of English or old English used earlier. Such as, the murder of crows originated from the old English word murther, meaning massacre and death. The group of crows were earlier indicated to be black magic and death, the same as ravens. Hence, the murder of crows originated.
Collective Pronouns
Collective pronouns are used to refer to the groups individually for more convenient communication. Instead of representing each member in the group the pronoun refers to them in a collective manner for easy understanding.Â
What Are Collective Nouns?: DefinitionÂ
According to Collins dictionary, ” pronouns that are used to indicate nouns collectively as a whole are known as a collective pronoun.”
Examples of collective pronouns
Let us take a look at some of the examples of collective pronouns.
- “We”: the group of individuals representing themselves as the first person in the action. Example: “We are going to work.”
- “Us”: us is used as a secondary representation where the group becomes an object. Example: “They invited us to work.”
- “Our”: is represented by the group to show territory and possession. Example: “This is our passion for work.”
- “They”: is used to refer to another group of people. Example: “They also like to work.”
- “Them” is used as a secondary representation where the other group becomes an object. Example: “Working is also a passion for them.”
- “Their” is used to show possession and territory by another group. Example: “They need to finish their work tomorrow”
How collective pronouns are used in sentences
Collective pronoun is used in place of collective noun to avoid any kind of repetition and confusion maintaining the simplicity in the language.Â
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Key Takeaways
- Collective nouns are the words that tell us things, or people are in a group with different terms.
- Verb agreement is essential when using collective nouns.
- There are various types of collective nouns
Quiz
Question comes here
Frequently Asked Questions
Regular nouns are singular and plural, while collective nouns are addressed in a group.
A pluralizing collective noun is the same as putting an “s” or an ” es” behind.
Yes, collective nouns in the sense of multiple groups can be plural too.
The verb agreement is always mistaken when people use collective nouns.
The verb agreement should be in singular as even and group the collective action done is taken as a whole.
Yes, you can help yourself with the exercises given below in Edulyte to understand collective nouns.
