What are Collective Nouns?
Collective nouns are words for groups of people, animals, or things that are similar to one another and are spoken of as one whole.
Here are some examples of collective nouns:
Library = a collection of books
Herd = a group of animals
Crowd = a collection of people
Galaxy = a collection of stars
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family
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band
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group
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crew
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gang
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team
|
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orchestra
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class
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family
|
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audience
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choir
|
staff
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police
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audience
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troupe
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Here is a list of collective nouns that are used for groups of people, animals, or things.
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a band of
musicians
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a brood of
chickens
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a school of
fish
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a team of
players
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a flight of
steps
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a bunch of
keys
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a class of
pupils
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a collection of
books
|
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a deck of
cards
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a fleet of
ships
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a flock of
sheep
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a gaggle of
geese
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a gang of
robbers
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a herd of
cattle
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a litter of
cubs
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a pod of
whales
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a pack of
wolves
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a set of
stamps
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a pride of
lions
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a swarm of
bees
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a troupe of
actors
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a pack of
coyotes
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Singular and Plural Collective Nouns
Collective nouns are singular when we think of them as a single group and plural when we think of the collection of people acting as individuals within the group.
Look at the following examples of singular and plural collective nouns.
If we are talking about eggs, we could say,
- A dozen is probably not enough.
- A dozen are coming over this afternoon.
Many collective nouns can be used with a singular or plural verb
- My family was happy to see me.
or
- My family were happy to see me.
Here are some more examples of collective nouns in sentences.
- The jury found the prisoner innocent.
- Our class consists of fifteen pupils.
- We saw a herd of cattle walking past the street.
- The army marched into the battlefield.
I hope this explanation will help you to understand collective nouns better.
See Also
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