Consulting Journal: Writing - The singular as plural

Writing: The singular as plural

by David Blakey

Is there a person who checks your English? And would they approve of this sentence?

[Monday 29 April 2002]

Which of these is correct?

The police is looking for us.

The police are looking for us.

Strictly speaking, the first is the one that should be correct. The word ‘police’ is singular, so we should use the singular form of the verb. In practice, however, most people will treat the word ‘police’ as if it were plural.

In this article, I shall look at some other examples of words that are plural although they appear to be singular and then at plural references to singular nouns. Finally, I shall review the ‘correctness’ of them.

Plural though singular in form

Although the word ‘police’ is a strong example, there are other words that may be treated as if they were plural even though they are singular. Is ‘the government’ singular or plural? Which of these sounds better?

The government has introduced the bill so that it can more easily monitor its own suppliers.

The government have introduced the bill so that they can more easily monitor their own suppliers.

I mean ‘sounds’. Say them both out loud. Which sounds better? Which sounds more natural?

If you think that the left example sounds better and if it is more natural for you to say, then you have a traditional view. If you prefer the right example, then you have a less formal view. I don't mind which you have. I just want you to write the same way that you speak. If you use a method of speaking, use the same method for writing. This goes, I know, against a lot of the so-called ‘quality assurance’ that some consulting firms do on draft reports. They expect their reports to read like properly-constructed papers in a school English test. I prefer reports that will engage their readers and that sound like the consultants themselves speaking.

In my view, therefore, whether you use a plural for a noun that is singular in form is a matter entirely for you. Personally, I reject attempts to regulate this.

Plural references to singular nouns

A consultant may use a plural reference to a singular noun without even realizing that they are doing it.

The sentence above starts with a singular noun. This isn't like ‘the government’ or ‘the board of directors’ or ‘the management’. ‘A consultant’ is clearly singular. But later there is a plural reference to it: ‘they’.

Alternative forms are

A consultant may use a plural reference to a singular noun without even realizing that he is doing it.	A consultant may use a plural reference to a singular noun without even realizing that she is doing it.
A consultant may use a plural reference to a singular noun without even realizing that he or she is doing it.	A consultant may use a plural reference to a singular noun without even realizing that they are doing it.

As we are discussing a consultant whose gender is not known, the two top forms are both wrong. The left one is the ‘traditional’ form, using ‘he’ as independent of gender. The right one is a newer replacement for it, as there are people who object to women apparently being insulted by the left one but who do not mind themselves insulting men. The bottom left one is correct but clumsy.

The bottom right one - the plural reference to a singular noun - has actually been used, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, since the sixteenth century. It may be that it has only recently been regarded as improper usage. Once people began the codification of the English language in the nineteenth century, we had rules that were apparently logical but that sometimes defied usage and occasionally defied common sense. The use of ‘they’ as an impersonal third-person singular pronoun was certainly in common usage before and seems to me to be a sensible way of dealing with the issue.

Correctness

I think of people who refer to the ‘rules’ rather than to common sense as pedants: the rules may exist because someone invented them, and not because they make sense.

So, the plural that appears to be singular is sensible, is commonly used in speech, and should be used in writing. It is mainly used for groups of people. Where the entity can exist without the people within it, I prefer the singular usage. So,

The company needs to review its policies.	The board need to review their policies.
The council needs to review its policies.	The management need to review their policies.

On the left, a company or corporation exists as an entity in itself, as does a council. On the right, the board of a company necessarily consists of its people and does not exist if there are no people, and likewise the management of a company.

My tip is: use whichever feels better for you, and be consistent with it.

The plural reference to a singular noun, using ‘they’ as an impersonal third-person singular pronoun, has been used for centuries. For some reason, those who made the rules regarded it as wrong. Fowler's Modern English Usage disliked it in 1926. A new edition of Fowler, edited by Robert Burchfield, accepts it.

So, here's my tip, which indicates clearly the change from singular to plural. If there is someone in your firm who insists upon using ‘him or her’, tell them that they don't understand acceptable English grammar.

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