People who are new to writing often encounter some trouble with sentence agreement when using collective nouns. This is understandable, because a collective noun can be singular or plural, depending on a sentence’s context. How do you know if a collective noun is singular? How can you tell if it’s plural? What pronouns and verbs are best for pairing with the collective noun you’ve chosen?
Here’s a simple trick you can use to decide how to use collective nouns in sentences: Imagine a herd of zebras grazing peacefully on the savanna. Suddenly, a lion jumps out of a clump of tall grass. What do the zebras do? They run away as a single unit as they attempt to make a getaway, galloping across the savanna in the same direction.
Often, people behave in the same way, engaging in a single activity in unison with everyone else in their group. When individuals are in a team, a choir, a committee, or part of any other collective noun, that noun is singular and is paired with singular pronouns and singular verbs. As you read the examples that follow, notice that each individual who is part of the collective noun is doing the same action at the same time as others who are part of that collective noun.