Collective nouns are an essential part of language. While we may not use them as often in our daily conversations, we did memorise some of them in school. From a pack of cards to a litter of puppies, ...

A school of fish is a collective noun that refers to a specific group of things, animals, or people, all with a singular form. Credit: Georgette Douwma/Getty Images There are more than ten different ...

Why is Christian Science in our name? Our name is about honesty. The Monitor is owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and we’ve always been transparent about that. The church publishes the ...

The couple is going to purchase the house? Or the couple are going to purchase the house? Even after all my years of editing, I can still get tripped up trying to make verbs agree with collective ...

The couple is going to purchase the house? Or the couple are going to purchase the house? Even after all my years of editing, I can still get tripped up trying to make verbs agree with collective ...

Do you know the ridiculous term for a group of jellyfish? Find out here. We all have our favourites. A flush of fungi. A bask of crocodiles. A charm of finches. And a superfluity of nuns – well, maybe ...

It will be a shame to give up on collective nouns with plural verbs Last week’s little victory was confirming that the use of what we may call “singular their” in English goes back centuries.

If you’ve ever stumbled across a ‘charm of goldfinches’ or a ‘crash of rhinos’, you’ll know that the names we give groups of animals can be particularly poetic in the English language. Some of them ...