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What are collective nouns? The meaning, usage and exercises

The collective noun is a common grammatical item in English that you should not overlook if you want to communicate effectively and achieve high scores in practical exams. What is a collective noun and how is it used? Let's explore the details in the following article with PREP!

I. Collective noun definition
II. Collective noun categories
III. Subject-verb agreement for collective nouns
1. 1. Collective noun + singular verb
2. 2. Collective noun + plural verb
IV. Subject-verb agreement rules for collective nouns
V. Some notes on collective nouns
VI. Exercises on English collective nouns with detailed answers
VII. Take the First Step Towards IELTS Success

I. Collective noun definition

The collective noun is a special type of noun in English that is used to refer to a group or collection of people or things as a single entity. Here are some collective nouns examples for your reference:

The dead sheep was covered with swarms of flies. ➡ Swarm is a collective noun referring to animals.
A flock of birds is circling overhead. ➡ A flock of birds is a collective noun referring to animals.
The class takes its mid-term exam today. ➡ Class is a collective noun referring to people.
Approval by the board of directors is required to implement the new strategy. ➡ A board of directors is a collective noun referring to people.
They hope that these new drugs will make them piles of money. ➡ Pile is a collective noun referring to objects.
A pair of shoes is under the bed. ➡ A pair of shoes is a collective noun referring to objects.

II. Collective noun categories

In English, there are four main types of collective nouns corresponding to four different groups of objects, including:

Collective nouns for people
Collective nouns for animals
Collective nouns for objects
Collective nouns for specific groups

However, there is a relatively large, diverse, and difficult-to-remember amount of collective nouns. Therefore, please refer to the following common collective noun list:

List of collective nouns in English		Pronunciation	Meaning
Collective nouns for people	Team	/tiːm/	a group of people who play a particular game or sport against another group of people
	Family	/ˈfæm.əl.i/	a group consisting of one or two parents and their children
	Class	/klæs/	a group of students who are taught together
	Committee	/kəˈmɪt̬.i/	a group of people who are chosen, usually by a larger group, to make decisions or to deal with a particular subject
	Crowd	/kraʊd/	a large number of people gathered together in a public place, for example in the streets or at a sports game
	Crew	/kruː/	all the people working on a ship, plane, etc.
	Audience	/ˈɑː.di.əns/	the group of people who have gathered to watch or listen to something (a play, concert, somebody speaking, etc.)
	Gang	/ɡæŋ/	an organized group of criminals
	Group	/ɡruːp/	a number of people or things that are together in the same place or that are connected in some way
	Staff	/stæf/	all the workers employed in an organization considered as a group
	Choir	/ˈkwaɪər/	a group of people who sing together, for example in church services or public performances
	Orchestra	/ˈɔːrkɪstrə/	a large group of people who play various musical instruments together, led by a conductor
	Panel	/ˈpænl/	a group of specialists who give their advice or opinion about something; a group of people who discuss topics of interest on television or radio
	Board	/bɔːrd/	a group of people who have power to make decisions and control a company or other organization
	Troupe	/truːp/	a group of actors, singers, etc. who work together
	Company	/ˈkʌm.pə.ni/	a business organization that makes money by producing or selling goods or services
Collective nouns for animals	Herd	/hɝːd/	a group of animals of the same type that live and feed together
	Pack	/pæk/	a group of animals that hunt together or are kept for hunting
	Flock	/flɑːk/	a group of sheep, goats or birds of the same type
	Swarm	/swɔːm/	a large group of insects, especially bees, moving together in the same direction
	School	/skuːl/	a large number of fish or other sea animals, swimming together
	Troop	/truːp/	A group of monkeys
Collective nouns for objects	Bunch	/bʌntʃ/	a number of things of the same type fastened together or in a close group
	Pile	/paɪl/	objects positioned one on top of another
	Heap	/hiːp/	an untidy pile or mass of things
	Set	/set/	a group of similar things that belong together in some way
	Series	/ˈsɪriːz/	a set of television or radio programmes or podcasts that deal with the same subject or that have the same characters

Furthermore, PREP also provides a compilation of 50+ collective noun phrases categorized clearly according to each group of objects. Please refer to the tables below:

1. Collective nouns for people

Collective noun phrase	Example
An army/a troop of soldiers	An army of soldiers ran into the forest.
A band of musicians	A band of musicians will perform at her birthday party.
A bevy of ladies	A bevy of ladies is queuing in front of a cosmetics store.
A board of directors	Anna currently works on a board of directors.
A body of men	A body of men is transporting bulky goods.
A bunch of crooks	Anna caught a bunch of crooks walking down the street.
A caravan of gypsies	A caravan of gypsies is walking from India to Russia.
A choir of singers	A choir of singers is performing at York church.
A class of students	A class of students is trying on uniforms.
A crowd of people	A crowd of people gathered on the road.
A gang of thieves	A gang of thieves forced their way into a woman’s home and stole her car.
A pack of thieves	They treated us like a pack of thieves.
A panel of experts	A panel of experts is evaluating the quality of the new product.
A team of players	It’s a team of players who would remain loyal if the club could afford to keep them.
A troupe of dancers	A troupe of dancers from Thailand is one of the leading attractions in the festival.

2. Collective nouns for animals

Collective noun phrase	Example
An army of ants	An army of ants is parading across the path.
A brood of chicks	The farmer called a veterinarian to treat a brood of sick chicks.
A flock of birds/sheep	A flock of birds flew over the village.
A herd of deer/elephant/cattle	A herd of deer is running through the highway.
A hive of bees	I see a hive of bees on a star fruit tree.
A litter of puppies/kittens	My Corgi dog just gave birth to a litter of puppies.
A nest of mice	I saw a nest of mice in the backyard.
A pack of hounds/wolves	A pack of hounds is chasing a wild boar.
A plague of insects	A plague of insects flew into people’s houses because a big storm was about to hit.
A pride of lions	I’m watching a documentary about the hunting behavior of a pride of lions.
A school of fish	A school of fish is swimming in the lake.
A swarm of locusts/bees/insects	A swarm of locusts destroyed the crops of my family.
A team of horses	Alex’s ranch has a beautiful team of horses.
A troop of monkeys	A troop of monkeys in the zoo is being fed by visitors.

3. Collective nouns for objects

Collective noun phrase	Example
A bar of chocolate/soap	I was rewarded with a bar of chocolate by the teacher when I had the correct answer.
A blade of grass	There was not a breath of wind blowing, and not a leaf or blade of grass stirred.
A bottle of water	I brought a bottle of water into the exam room.
A bunch of flowers/grapes /bananas /keys	Chris sent me a bunch of flowers when I was sick.
A bundle of vegetables/sticks/clothes	That bundle of vegetables is so fresh.
A cloud of smoke	I see a purple cloud of smoke.
A drop of rain	Suddenly, a drop of rain dropped on my face.
A fall of snow/rain	There was a big fall of snow in Moscow.
A fleet of ships	A fleet of ships was sunk.
A forest of trees	The campsite is set in the middle of a forest of trees.
A galaxy of stars	I’m watching a galaxy of stars on TV.
A grain of sand	A grain of sand can get inside a mussel’s body.
A pack of cards	The tarot is a pack of cards.
A pair of shoes	Anna gave me a pair of shoes for my birthday.
A range of mountains/hills	I saw a range of mountains when driving from Bao Loc to LangBiang.
A wad of notes	I used a wad of notes to take note lessons.
Flight of steps/stairs	That flight of steps leads down to the secret basement.

4. Collective nouns for specific groups

Most collective nouns are common nouns. However, they can also function as proper nouns in cases where they are the names of a company/corporation/organization with more than one person, such as Apple, Samsung, FPT, Vingroup, WHO, UNICEF, WB, OPEC, etc. For example:

Samsung is a Korean technology company. Samsung is a proper noun referring to the name of a company.
WHO sponsored 10 doses of Botulinum antitoxin for Singapore. WHO is a proper noun referring to the name of an organization.

III. Subject-verb agreement for collective nouns

In many cases, you may encounter difficulty in determining whether a collective noun should be followed by a singular or plural verb. Let's compare the two examples below:

The team is playing a volleyball match.
The team are eating pizzas for lunch.

Both sentences use the collective noun "team," but the verb agreement is different in each sentence. From these examples, we can infer that "team" can be used with both singular and plural verbs.

To have a better understanding, let's explore the rules of combining collective nouns with verbs in the following sections with PREP!

1. Collective noun + singular verb

Collective nouns are considered singular, and the verb that follows them is also singular when the noun implies "a single entity." "A single entity" here refers to all members in the group performing the same action or each part of an object having the same characteristics and mode of operation. For example:

The team is playing a volleyball match. All members of the team are playing the sport of volleyball, and no one is doing anything else.
The herd is grazing quietly in the meadow. All animals in the herd are peacefully grazing in the meadow, and no animal is engaged in any other action.

2. Collective noun + plural verb

In addition to the previous case, an English collective noun can also be plural, and the verb that follows it is also in the plural form. This occurs when there are multiple individuals/objects within a group engaged in different actions or when there are multiple parts/characteristics with different modes of operation. For example:

The team are eating pizzas for lunch. All members of the team are eating pizzas for lunch, but they may be eating different types of pizzas, such as chicken pizza, beef pizza, seafood pizza, etc.
My family are predominantly blond-haired. Most members of my family have blond hair, but there are still a few individuals with different hair colors, such as black, brown, etc.

IV. Subject-verb agreement rules for collective nouns

Besides the general principles outlined earlier in PREP, it's important to grasp the guidelines for subject-verb agreement, especially when dealing with collective nouns.

	Case	Example
1	When referring to a collective entity, the verb and pronoun that follow should be in the third person singular.	Our team is going to play badminton together. The class is taking its final exam at the moment.
2	When members within the same group are acting individually, the verb should be in the third person plural.	The family are doing different jobs around the house today.
3	For English noun phrases belonging to the categories of animals, plants, money, time, and measurement, even though the noun following the preposition "of" (e.g., an army of ants, a choir of singers, a forest of trees) is plural, the verb still takes the third person singular form.	An army of ants is carrying food back to the nest.
4	A number of vs the number of: "A number of" + plural noun + plural verb... "The number of" + plural noun + singular verb...	A number of students are going to the zoo. The number of residents who have been provided food during the epidemic is quite small.
5	"A pair of... + singular verb" is used for objects consisting of two identical parts connected to each other, such as binoculars, scissors, glasses, binoculars, etc. "A pair of... + plural verb" is used for two people, objects, or animals that are paired or matched together.	A pair of scissors that Anna was holding belonged to my grandmother. A pair of twins are studying abroad in the UK.

V. Some notes on collective nouns

Here are some notes on the usage of English collective nouns:

English collective nouns can be used with quantifying words to specify the number of members in a group. For example: Two herds of elephants are migrating across the savannah.
English collective nouns can be used in both questions and negations. For example:
- A: Is the staff ready for the event?
- B: No, the staff is not available at the moment.
English collective nouns can also be used with words indicating degree or intensity. For example: The crowd was extremely excited during the concert.

VI. Exercises on English collective nouns with detailed answers

To use English collective nouns proficiently, in addition to studying the theory, you also need to practice through exercises and apply this knowledge in daily communication. Challenge yourself with the following questions!

1. Exercise 1. Fill in the blanks with appropriate words

choir, pride, flock, bunch, crowd, troop, flight, band, swarm, litter

The cat has a ……………………. of five kittens.
The ………………… of singers sang melodiously.
The jungle safari gave us an opportunity to spot a ………………… of lions.
The poachers were attacked by a ……………….. of wild elephants.
A ………………… of bees forced us to take shelter in the cave.
A ……………….. of stairs leads to the terrace.
The ……………….. of musicians delivered a magical performance.
The children were amused by the ………………. of monkeys in the park.
A …………………. of grapes was hanging from the vine.
A …………………. of people was cheering and urging her on all through the race.

2. Exercise 2: Choose the correct answer

A …………………. of wolves roamed through the forest.
1. Pack
2. Troop
3. Band
4. Bunch
A …………………. of fish swam gracefully in the ocean.
1. Herd
2. Swarm
3. Choir
4. School
A …………………. of directors made an important decision.
1. Board
2. Pride
3. Group
4. Litter
Oysters form a pearl around a …………………. of sand.
1. Class
2. Grain
3. Pack
4. Fleet
A …………………. of lions is resting under the tree.
1. Hive
2. Pride
3. Team
4. Brood

3. Answer keys

Exercise 1:

1. litter	2. choir	3. pride	4. herd	5. swarm
6. flight	7. band	8. troop	9. bunch	10. crowd

Exercise 2:

VII. Take the First Step Towards IELTS Success

This article has provided necessary insight into collective nouns. If your goal is to achieve a Band 7 or higher, these IELTS resources are for you:

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Founder of Prep Smart Test Preparation Platform. With over 10 years of experience in teaching and test preparation, Mr. Tú has helped thousands of students achieve high scores in the IELTS exam. In addition, Mr. Tú Phạm is also a consulting expert in British Council programs and a speaker at many leading educational events, programs, and conferences.