collective nouns

[ridvann]

Hello,

We know, of course, that collective nouns are not treated the same in BrE and AmE. In American English, collective nouns are always singular, and in British English collective nouns can be either plural or singular.​

Such as: Forest, crowd, cattle, audience, group, class, family,...etc.

My question is how to use it with numbers?

A family of two (THAT'S OK)

Could you please check which ones are fine?

Groups of 4,
2 family,
2 group,
2 families,
2 groups,
Lots of family,
Lots of families.

For example: There are lots of class/ classes in that school.
There are 2 group/ groups.

Thanks...

 

[bhaisahab]

Hello,

We know, of course, that collective nouns are not treated the same in BrE and AmE. In American English, collective nouns are always singular, and in British English collective nouns can be either plural or singular.​

Such as: Forest, crowd, cattle, audience, group, class, family,...etc.

My question is how to use it with numbers?

A family of two (THAT'S OK)

Could you please check which ones are fine?

Groups of 4, OK.
2 family, No.
2 group, No.
2 families, OK.
2 groups, OK.
Lots of family, Possible.
Lots of families. OK.

For example: There are lots of class/ classes in that school. "classes".

Thanks...

Bhai.

 

[ridvann]

Thanks for the answer. As you have said 'lots of family ispossible, lots of families is OK.

Can we construct a sentence like that?

There are/is lots of family in her race.​

 

[bhaisahab]

Thanks for the answer. As you have said 'lots of family ispossible, lots of families is OK.

Can we construct a sentence like that?

There are/is lots of family in her race.​

What do you mean by "race"?
You could say informally, "I have lots of family in Ireland", for example.

 

[ridvann]

I just wanted to learn if it is grammatically correct or not.

There are lots of classes in that school. (THAT'S OK)​

There is lots of class in that school. (IS THAT OK?)


​

 

[bhaisahab]

I just wanted to learn if it is grammatically correct or not.

There are lots of classes in that school. (THAT'S OK)​

There is lots of class in that school. (IS THAT OK?)


​

No. You might say "That school has lots/a lot of class". http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/class_4

 

[Barb_D]

And the American version of these is exactly the same as Bhai describes.