Close menu
1

One-minute English :1واحد

انتخاب واحد

  1. 1One-minute English
  2. 2Unit 2
  3. 3Unit 3
  4. 4Unit 4
  5. 5Unit 5
  6. 6Unit 6
  7. 7Unit 7
  8. 8Unit 8
  9. 9Unit 9
  10. 10Unit 10
  11. 11Unit 11
  12. 12Unit 12
  13. 13Unit 13
  14. 14Unit 14
  15. 15Unit 15
  16. 16Unit 16
  17. 17Unit 17
  18. 18Unit 18
  19. 19Unit 19
  20. 20Unit 20
  21. 21Unit 21
  22. 22Unit 22
  23. 23Unit 23
  24. 24Unit 24
  25. 25Unit 25
  26. 26Unit 26
  27. 27Unit 27
  28. 28Unit 28
  29. 29Unit 29
  30. 30Unit 30
  31. 31Unit 31
  32. 32Unit 32
  33. 33Unit 33
  34. 34Unit 34
  35. 35Unit 35
  36. 36Unit 36
  37. 37Unit 37
  38. 38Unit 38
  39. 39Unit 39
  40. 40Unit 40

جلسه 33

Learn about collective nouns with Clare and Dan in One-minute English!
Some collective nouns have a secret! Do you know what it is?

جلسه های این واحد

123456789101112131415161718192021222324252627282930313233343536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657

Session 33 score

0 / 3

  • 0 / 3
    تمرین 1
  1. تمرین 1

تمرین 1

A secret about collective nouns

Do you have a minute to spare to learn some English? Here's Dan to divulge a secret about collective nouns! Give us 60 seconds and we'll give you the English!

ویدیو را تماشا کنید و تمرین را کامل کنید

نشان دادن متنپنهان کردن متن

Dan
Hi, I'm Dan from BBC Learning English and today I'm going to tell you something about collective nouns.

Collective nouns are often called group nouns. That is because they represent a number of things together. Examples are: government, family and team.

So, what's the big deal?

The special thing about these collective nouns is that they can be singular or plural.

If you consider your family to be a group of individuals, then the pronoun is they and the verb is plural. My family are happy.

But your family can also be considered as a single unit, a machine that all works together. In this case, the pronoun is it and the verb is singular. My family is happy.

This does not apply to all collective nouns, so be careful. Police and staff are always plural.

A secret about collective nouns

Collective nouns, or group nouns, represent a number of things or people together. Some of them can be both singular or plural - both are correct and the choice is up to the speaker. 

  • Government
  • Family
  • Team

Be careful
Not all collective nouns act in this way. Some are always plural.

  • The police are coming.
  • The staff are tired.

A group of individuals
These nouns can be considered a group of individuals - a football team has 11 individual players. In this case, the pronoun is they and the verb form is plural.

  • My football team are the best. They are unbeatable.
  • The governmentplan to raise taxes. They are always doing that.
  • My family are happy. They never have any problems.

A unit
These nouns can also be considered a unit - even though they have individual parts, they function together in unison. In this case, the pronoun is it and the verb form is singular.

  • My football teamis the best. It is unbeatable.
  • The government plans to raise taxes. It is always doing that.
  • My family is happy. It never has any problems.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

To do

Try our quiz to see how well you've learned today's language. 

One Minute English Quiz

3 Questions

Test your understanding of this lesson with our quiz!

تبریک می گوییم
Excellent!آفرین! نمره شماBad luck!:
x / y

Downloads

You can download a PDF document for this episode here.

 

دانلودها

تازه ترین