SAT Study Guide/Part 4 - The Writing Section/Identifying Sentence Errors/Identifying Singular and Plural Subjects

=Identifying Singular and Plural Subjects=

Subjects that are Plural and Singular
Some subjects can act as either a plural or a singular subject. Collective nouns like family or team are either singular or plural depending on the context. The majority prefers chocolate ice cream.

The majority have vanilla ice cream cones. In the first sentence, The majority is taken as a single unit. We're not saying the whole group prefers chocolate ice cream, only the singular majority does. In the second sentence, we use have, a plural verb, because a majority of the group implies multiple people. Thus, we use a plural verb form.

Other common collective nouns include
 * Committee
 * Band
 * Dozen
 * Audience
 * Flock
 * Pack

Here are some examples: 1)A dozen eggs are eight dollars.

2)The platoon is returning to their homes.

Plural Subjects that Sound Singular
Some words like the names of countries, diseases, institutions and books may sound plural but they are actually singular nouns. The United States is a singular noun. The measles is a singular noun. For native English speakers, generally if you can put a "The" before the noun and the phrase doesn't sound wrong to you the noun is probably singular. "The World Series", "The Olympics", "The Netherlands" are all examples of singular subjects that look plural.

Here are some examples: 1) The United Arab Emirates are a federation of 7 emirates in the Arabian peninsula.

2) The 2012 Summer Olympics are being held in London.