LanguageTeach

San Jose City College

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     Personal Pronoun Agreement with Collective Nouns

When a collective noun refers to a single group or unit, a gender-neutral pronoun (it or its) is used.
    • The football team lost its first-place ranking after losing to San José City College.

When a collective noun refers to a collection of individuals acting/thinking/feeling/experiencing individually, third person plural pronouns (they, them, their) are used.
    • The soccer team is playing in Chicago. They aren't used to playing in the snow. Their hands and ears will be very cold.

Write the pronoun that agrees with the sense of the collective noun. Will it be third person singular to refer to the unit as a whole or third person plural to refer to a collection of various individuals?

1. Ted's family has own restaurant business in Santa Cruz.

2. The family works hard to maintain the business. do all own buying, cooking, accounting, and even the maintenance themselves.

3. The class wasn't doing well because never knew what the teacher expected.

4. The class was cancelled because had very low enrollment.

5. The government has accepted the resignation of United Nations ambassador.

6. The audience booed when felt the comedian had insulted .

7. The audience started walking out. dwindled to one-third original size.

8. A new committee to investigate cheating has been formed. will meet monthly for a semester.

9.The committee has completed report. As promised, will submit report to the president next week. NoteBoth its report and their report would be correct in this context, especially since the second sentence uses third person plural pronouns.

Remember that collective nouns can take singular or plural verbs. The singular verb is more common in American English; the plural verb is more common in British English. With the plural verb, the plural pronoun is anticipated:
The committee have completed their report.

10. The public is outraged over the increasing crime rate. want the govenment to hire more policemen.

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