british vs. american informal collective singular/plural?

Question

It seems to me that the british use

"the team are", or "manchester's side are doing quite well"

whereas americans might say

"the team is" or "the government is"
but they would still say
"the colts play"

Is this generally true?

American slang also tends to have things like
"they was running hard last night"

Just an observation. Any thoughts on the origins?

simply put "the team are" and "the team is"

I'm not questioning propriety, just wondering about common usage!

again, i'm not worried about propriety...that is available in many,
many books on the subject....it
just seems that brits tend towards the
plural and yanks towards the singular
in informal usage. true?

Answer 1

You're right about the first point. The Brits will say "The government are...", while Americans will always say "The government is..." This is for singular nouns that still have a collective meaning.

"The colts" is plural, so it takes a plural verb in both US & UK variants.

"They was running..." is not standard American usage. That construction is more common among black people and Southerners.

Answer 2

That's really interesting.

If what you say is true (not doubting, just setting an assertion), then it seems that the British are paying more attention to the fact that a team is made of many people, whereas the Americans are paying more attention to the fact that the subject of the sentence is singular (even if it defines a group).

I hope that makes sense.

I'm not sure if the British diagram sentences in school, but I remember it well from American school and it is clear to me that by the rules of grammar I learned that "the team is" is more grammatically correct. While the British "the team are" may be more subjectively appropriate, it just doesn't sound right to my ear at all.

And "they was running hard" is not slang. It's just plain bad English.

Thanks for provoking thought!

Answer 3

In the case of the "Colts play" the formal noun is plural, therefore making the verb plural. Rarely do I hear people here in the US say "the team were good last night". Since the word team has the function of labeling a group as one single unit, the verb is singular, I can't think of considering a team as plural, because although there are multiple individuals within the team, the team is considered one unifying force, making it a singular unit. remember, "There's no I in team!" "They was running" is definitely slang, but I'm not sure as the origin. Personally I get the thought of southern influence in regards to African American slang, but that could just be a stereotype on my part.

Answer 4

I don't know the complete question, but what I do know is that a collective noun is "a Herd of cows", "a flock of ..." any noun that is one group that describes a group of nouns. A noun is a person, place or thing. A singular noun is one thing. I know it is a proper noun, and I really don't believe it is plural, so I think it may not be any of the choices you posted.

Answer 5

I think some others have already answered your question in sufficient detail. I'd just like to suggest that from now on you refrain from referring to Americans as 'yanks' (a pejorative term) if you wish to elicit their insight :-)

Answer 6

I don't know if it's a general trend, but it's just that certain nouns will tend to be used differently, as you've mentioned. Another one is "family".

Answer 7

Proper English is proper English, no matter who speaks it!!