A group of people, animals, and things are collective nouns. Some collective nouns are versatile while others are not. For example, swarm typically describes bees and not lions. However, you could deliberately use the wrong collective noun to promote a specific image.

Generally, collective nouns are singular. They are only used in the plural form if they are emphasizing the individual members of a group. To make the plural flow better you can put a phrase like members of in front of the collective term. The members of congress were sick may be easier to read than the congress were sick.

Note: grammar checking software will most likely want to change were to was. Typically, the software views collective nouns as singular.

Examples

• flock
• group
• committee
• school
• choir
• team
• gang
• band
• herd
• gaggle
• litter
• swarm