Grammar Girl here.

Today's topic is collective nouns, nouns that describe a group, such as family, orchestra,

and board.

Guest writer Bonnie Trango writes, there are around 200 collective nouns in the English language.

Sometimes they take a singular verb, but other times they take a plural verb.

The most important thing to realize is that there are no hard and fast rules here, only

trends.

Usually, which verb you use depends on two things, whether you consider the collective

noun to be a single unit or to be made up of individuals, and whether you're American

or British.

Let's use the collective noun couple as an example.

When you're thinking of the couple as two separate people doing separate things, you'd

probably use a plural verb.

For example, you'd say the couple are vacationing separately this year, because they're two

different people doing two different things.

On the other hand, if you're thinking of the couple as a single unit, you'd probably

use a singular verb.

For example, you'd say each couple is going to Bermuda on a different day.

You just have to use your best judgment.

And even though this seems tricky, the good news is that you can never really get it wrong,

because one, there is no real rule.

And two, you can always just assert that you were thinking of the couple as individuals

...