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Hi teachers, I badly need your help! I was totally confused when I read a sentence that said: The police ARE out of control. I thougth that being �police � uncountable it had to be followed by a singular verb. Then read in some grammar discussion on the net that collective nouns are treated differently in BrE and AmE. In American English, collective nouns are always singular,
and in British English collective nouns can be either plural or
singular. The collective noun "police" is always plural. As
well, we can �t count police, so this makes it an uncountable noun. In
order to count police, we have to say "policeman" or "policewoman",
which follows with the plural forms "policemen" or "policewomen".
Then I read in another discussion that �police � should be followed by singular verbs. .... so what do you think?? Does this mean that some nouns have singular forms but can have plural sense. (For example police, people, military, cattle, fruit, fish?.. In Cambridge dictionary Police is listed as plural.... So I don �t know! I guess it �s plural!
Could any of you help me clarify this? Is is plural or singular?
It is plural, as strange as it may sound. We often tend to associate the meaning and the grammatical structure with our native language. It is so difficult for my students, and not only, to use money with is, as we have it as plural noun.
As a native English speaker in Canada, I would say "the police" is plural, while referring to a single police officer is singular. I think it would be used similar to "people" which is used in the plural form. Regards, Shari
I wanted to hear your opinions! It �s plural! I was confused because some people say it�s singular but you can�t say "a police".. but a policeman/woman/officer,..
I suppose that the police belongs among collective nouns, so if you speak generally you should say "the police are". when you talk about a single person, you should say "a policeman is". You can find more of the collective nouns - cattle for example is taken as plural too.
"THE POLICE" IS PLURAL (ALL THE GANG ARE HERE - MEN AND WOMEN AND THEY WILL ARREST THE CRIMINALS) AND YOU CAN WATCH CSI MIAMI OR OTHER SERIES AND SEE THAT THEY ALWAYS USE "THE POLICE ARE HERE" AND NOT "THE POLICE IS HERE"
As a native speaker, I also say and can only remember hearing "police are".
On another note, in my part of the US (Pacific NW) it �s generally considered bad form to use "policeman" or "police woman". Gender neutral language--in this case "police officer"--is preferred. Is that just here or is that the case in other parts of the world?
I agree about using �the police � as a collective for the group - plural. �The police force � is singular.
Sue - I believe in the UK we are technically supposed to say �police officer � but in reality we tend not to. The same with most other jobs - while there is usually a gender-neutral alternative, it is rarely used in spoken English.
