My feed
Premium

Please
or
to access all these features

Pedants' corner

The Government are/ the Government is?

14 replies

nonmifairidere · 17/09/2013 19:09

The former always grates. Government is collective noun, so the latter is correct, surely.

OP posts:
Report
ohmymimi · 21/09/2013 15:07

Anyone?

Report
kickassangel · 21/09/2013 15:08

US uses plural, UK single.

I have read about it in grammar books

Report
jennycoast · 21/09/2013 15:11

Is, I thought.

Report
turkeyboots · 21/09/2013 15:12

Am a civil servant. We're told to use the singular.

Report
insancerre · 21/09/2013 15:14

I would use is

Report
2cats2many · 21/09/2013 15:17

The Government is

Members of the Government/Government ministers are

Report
ThreeDaughtersLoveSandwiches · 21/09/2013 15:28

We did this in my English GCSE earlier in the week. I think it is "are" for plural and "is" for singular so

The children in my DDs class are going to the park - because there is more than one child

My DDs class is going to the park - because there is only 1 class

Report
ohmymimi · 21/09/2013 19:38

Thanks, didn't know about US usage. I was a civil servant so 'is' was standard, but I hear 'are' used frequently.

Report
lalalonglegs · 21/09/2013 19:47

I think we tend to use "are" when speaking because we think of a government as a group of people but it is a single unit so "is" would be correct.

Report
MrsTerryPratchett · 24/09/2013 16:16

What do Canadians do? I always use is for singular, are for plural. However, I live in Canada so do they follow the UK or the US.

Report
mrspremise · 24/09/2013 18:04

The Government is doing nothing useful to solve the current financial crisis...

The Government are a bunch of total bell-ends...

It all depends on the context, really Wink

Report
SconeRhymesWithGone · 25/09/2013 03:13

US usage is generally to use the singular with government: The government is . . .

This link also has information about British usage.

oxforddictionaries.com/us/words/matching-verbs-to-collective-nouns-american

Report
Teapot13 · 27/09/2013 02:31

Not only do we only ever use the singular ("the family is," not "the family are") in the US, the whole mistake is a puzzling one to us. We don't say it by accident either, and we are confused when the English say the plural colloquially.

Report
claraschu · 27/09/2013 05:01

You never, never, ever hear the plural in the US. It is something I used to hear in the UK, but it is getting less common.

Report
Please create an account

To comment on this thread you need to create a Mumsnet account.