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A group is singular not plural. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a nincompoop.

FelixDeCat

FelixDeCat

Lifer
"A group of us was being chased by raptors."

or

"A group of us were being chased by raptors."

Which is correct?

A group - singular

A group of us - implied plurality

Hmmmmm...... :hmm:


(BTW this has to do with a nightmare I had involving time portals, earthquakes and large prehistoric carnivores. It was scurry.)
 
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In the UK, you can refer to a company or organization as singular or plural. "Nintendo are planning to reveal the successor to the Wii at E3." I know. Stupid, isn't it?
 
Not sure tbh. I think I tend to use the second example. It flows better. Here's how I'd say it...

Our group was being chased by a raptor.

A group of us were being chased by raptors.
 
CZroe said:
In the UK, you can refer to a company or organization as singular or plural. "Nintendo are planning to reveal the successor to the Wii at E3." I know. Stupid, isn't it?
Click to expand...

That must be quite amusing or confusing depending on your perspective. One company or a company of people? Hmmmm......:hmm:
 
The better question is where did you find raptors to get chased by.

Are you exploring Jurassic park again? 🙁
 
CZroe said:
In the UK, you can refer to a company or organization as singular or plural. "Nintendo are planning to reveal the successor to the Wii at E3." I know. Stupid, isn't it?
Click to expand...

What's wrong with that? If that's what they are planning to do...?
 
MotionMan said:
Originally Posted by FelixDeKat
"A group of us was being chased by raptors."

or

"A group of us were being chased by raptors."

Which is correct?

A group - singular


Group is a noun and is singular.



A group of us - implied plurality

Group is an adjective and us is the noun. Us is plural.

MotionMan
Click to expand...



You're right in the first, wrong in the second.

Us, in the second, is the adjective that defines what makes up the group. Group is still the noun.
 
Meghan54 said:
You're right in the first, wrong in the second.

Us, in the second, is the adjective that defines what makes up the group. Group is still the noun.
Click to expand...

To be fair, us is still a noun (pronoun) as it's the object of the preposition, no? And then the prepositional clause is serving as an adjective?
 
FelixDeKat said:
That must be quite amusing or confusing depending on your perspective. One company or a company of people? Hmmmm......:hmm:
Click to expand...


What perspective?

Companies, organizations, groups.....they're all treated as an individual unit.

Do you say, "The company were making a good profit."

Or do you say, "The company was making a good profit."


Bet it's the second one.

So, now replace the two words "The company" with a real company's name, like Intel, Nintendo, etc., and the sentence remains the same.

The nonsense that some bring up, about a company, organization, group, etc., being made up of individuals and hence the company itself is plural is not proper grammar, sorry. The group, company, organization is working as a unit towards a goal, not a bunch of independent individuals all going their own ways and just happening to hang out with each other and work on things that just happen to further the efforts of the overall company.

That's why a company is singular.....

Now, if you're speaking about a specific section within the group, company, etc., then it becomes plural, such as, "Intel's engineers were behind the times." Engineers is plural, Intel describes the engineers.
 
CZroe said:
In the UK, you can refer to a company or organization as singular or plural. "Nintendo are planning to reveal the successor to the Wii at E3." I know. Stupid, isn't it?
Click to expand...

When a sentence may be technically correct but sounds incorrect or clumsy, it is best to just rewrite it: "Nintendo officials are planning to reveal the successor to the Wii at E3."

Otherwise, I agree with lxskllr: "Our group was being chased by a raptor," or "A group of us were being chased by raptors."
 
Leros said:
I don't get hatred for passive voice. I think it sounds better a lot of the time.
Click to expand...

Agreed, I'd say it depends on the style of writing. For formal writing/technical writing then absolutely avoid passive voice, but for more personal writing, I tend to like the style of passive voice.
 
many times, it is indeed unavoidable. but it is clunky, and you end up using far more words to say something that could be said in another way, for more efficiently.

It also tends to confuse the subject. It is always an odd and non-preferred sentence construction when you see it.

Though, I agree that it isn't exactly wrong...it's just lazy, at times. :\
 
FelixDeKat said:
"A group of us was being chased by raptors."

or

"A group of us were being chased by raptors."

Which is correct?

A group - singular

A group of us - implied plurality

Hmmmmm...... :hmm:


(BTW this has to do with a nightmare I had involving time portals, earthquakes and large prehistoric carnivores. It was scurry.)
Click to expand...

MotionMan said:
Group is a noun and is singular.



Group is an adjective and us is the noun. Us is plural.

MotionMan
Click to expand...



Incorrect...


A group of us ______ being chased by raptors.

of us is a prepositional phrase.

A group (of us) ______ being chased by raptors.

group <----> ______
subject verb must be in agreement.

The correct answer is "was".


http://www.towson.edu/ows/moduleSVAGR.htm
scroll to the area between excercise 5 and 6.
 
sao123 said:
Incorrect...


A group of us ______ being chased by raptors.

of us is a prepositional phrase.

A group (of us) ______ being chased by raptors.

group <----> ______
subject verb must be in agreement.

The correct answer is "was".


http://www.towson.edu/ows/moduleSVAGR.htm
scroll to the area between excercise 5 and 6.
Click to expand...

Yeah, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I was incorrect. "of us" is a throw-away prepositional phrase. Group is the singular noun in both scenarios.

Unfortunately, I cannot blame it on being drunk, either.

MotionMan
 
Q: If I used "were" or "was" do you still know what is being said?
A: Yes, unless you're incredibly MIND NUMBINGLY stupid

in short, it doesn't fucking matter
 
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