audience 是 a plural collective noun 還是singular collective noun

是要看情況嗎？ 我那天抄來的一句“The closing should ask your audience to do something, whether it is to vote as you recommended, write to government official, or donate money to your cause. No matter how persuasive your speech, if your audience doesn't act your efforts are for naught. “    感覺這句audience後麵的doesn't 應該是don't 還是都行？ 多謝指教！

 

Collective Nouns

Sentence Agreement

• Introduction
• Collective Nouns
• Indefinite Pronouns
• Walk This Way
• Agree to Disagree

Collective nouns are singular in form but plural in sense. Here are some examples of collective nouns:

assembly	committee	faculty	herd
audience	crew	family	jury
class	crowd	flock	team

For purposes of agreement, collective nouns can be singular or plural, depending on how they are used in a sentence. Collective nouns used as one unit take a singular verb; collective nouns that indicate many units take a plural verb.

1. Singular collective nouns
   • Singular collective nouns include molasses (one kind of syrup) and chicken pox (one kind of disease). Other examples include measles, civics, social studies, mumps, news, cast, social studies, economics, and mathematics.
   • The play's cast is rehearsing for today's show.
   • The singular subject cast takes the singular verb is. The members of the cast are functioning as a single unit.
   • The jury returns a unanimous verdict.
   • The singular subject jury requires the singular verb returns; the members of the jury are working together as one unit.
2. Plural collective nouns

   You Could Look It Up

   A collective noun names a group of people or things. Examples of collective nouns include class, committee, flock, herd, team, audience, assembly, team, club, and so on.

   • A collective noun is treated as plural when the group it names is considered to be made up of individuals. Because members of the group can act on their own, the word is considered plural.
   • The play's cast are rehearsing their lines.
   • The plural subject cast requires the plural verb are because the members of the cast are functioning as individual people doing separate things.
   • The jury often have different reactions to the evidence they hear.
   • The plural subject jury requires the plural verb have because the members of the jury are being considered as individuals.

Read more: Sentence Agreement: Collective Nouns — Infoplease.com http://www.infoplease.com/cig/grammar-style/collective-nouns.html#ixzz2B9yL8h1N

 

所有跟帖： 

• 似乎是singular collective noun -doyouknowme- ♀ (1036 bytes) () 11/03/2012 postreply 14:25:11

• yes, generally speaking we should use is rather than are.Thank y -sportwoman- ♀ (4925 bytes) () 11/03/2012 postreply 16:42:45

• 學習了, 謝謝! -tingfeng- ♀ (0 bytes) () 11/03/2012 postreply 16:46:57

• thank u 4 sharing. -sure- ♀ (0 bytes) () 11/04/2012 postreply 01:18:24

• thanks to tingfeng and sure!:) -sportwoman- ♀ (0 bytes) () 11/04/2012 postreply 05:22:48