Skip to content
IPMATway
Sign in

Lesson 5 of 7 · Subject-verb agreement

Collective noun

Grammar: Voice, Narration, Tenses + Rule Bank · for IPMAT Indore, IPMAT Rohtak and JIPMAT

The exam method

  1. Check the pronoun too. a singular collective noun takes "its", not "their".

Worked examples

Example 4Typical

There is a number of reasons why the project ran over budget. (va-sentence-correction-underlined-part-0109)

Two rules at once: after "there", look at the noun that follows; "a number of reasons" means "many reasons", so it is plural → are a number of reasons.

Watch out

  • Collective nouns: keep the verb and the pronoun together (has… its or, when members act separately, were… their).

Picked from the Subject-verb agreement note for this micro-concept automatically. The whole note: Subject-verb agreement.