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Ask for help > The police are out of control........
The police are out of control........
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yanogator
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Sue,
It �s definitely true in the rest of the US.
"Police" is different from "cattle", which can be the plural of "cow", and "people", which is the plural of "person". I would say that "the police" uses "are" because it usually means more than one officer. If one officer comes to your door, you could definitely say, "The police are here," but that one officer is still representing the collective.
I hope that wasn �t too confusing.
Bruce |
19 Jan 2010
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SueThom
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What I usually hear, I think, is "the police are" (more than one) or "the officer is" (or "the officer says" or whatever) when there is only one. I suppose you could say "the police officer says", but I don �t think I hear that because in conversation it usually seems to be understood that it �s a police officer.
Gosh, it �s so difficult to actually remember specific wording in my own language because I hardly ever think about the words; I �m just busy communicating and I �m only thinking about the meaning!  This is when it might be easier to be a non-native speaker because you actually have to pay attention sometimes to the form.
Sue
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19 Jan 2010
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