“A mob is an untidy collection, whereas a pack is much more orderly,” Sue says. Dingoes became a pack of wild dogs, and one term that we like to think is Australian, a mob of kangaroos (also applied to sheep and cattle), is used elsewhere in the world for other groups of animals. Rather than Australians developing their own collective nouns, they just applied conventional terms to the new area and new groups of animals, says Sue Butler, editor of the Macquarie Dictionary. “By and large they’re falling out of use.” Best collective nouns

“Young squires and knights wanting to learn hunting had to learn a whole range of terms, such as a brace of deer or grouse,” he says. Roly Sussex, Emeritus Professor of Applied Language studies at the University of Queensland, says they were used by those wishing to boost their social status. Many of these were for groups of animals, and some are still in use today, such as a gaggle of geese. All rights reserved.The book about ‘gentlemen’s interests’ became popular, and the terms widely accepted as correct English. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition copyright ©2022 by HarperCollins Publishers.

These nouns are called mass nouns or noncount nouns, and they always take a singular verb. It is ungrammatical to say a furniture or a luggage. Similar inanimate nouns, such as furniture and luggage, differ in that they cannot be counted individually. Note that collective nouns always refer to people or living creatures. Among the common collective nouns are committee, clergy, company, enemy, group, family, flock, public, and team. A collective noun should not be treated as both singular and plural in the same construction thus The family is determined to press its (not their) claim. The team are playing in the test matches next week. In British usage, however, collective nouns are more often treated as plurals: The government have not announced a new policy. The enemy were showing up in groups of three or four to turn in their weapons. It takes a plural verb when it refers to the members of the group considered as individuals, as in My family are always fighting among themselves. Usage Note: In American usage, a collective noun takes a singular verb when it refers to the collection considered as a whole, as in The family was united on this question.

What is collective noun