The Olympic/Asian/SEA Games with plural or single verbs?

[hoangkha]

Hi, teachers!
I have seen these following sentences.
1-The Southeast Asian Games (also known as the SEA Games), is a biennialmulti-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia. The games is under regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with supervision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia.
SEA Games - encyclopedia article about SEA Games.

2-The Southeast Asian Games (SEA Games), is a biennial multi-sport event involving participants from the current 11 countries of Southeast Asia.The Games are under regulation of the Southeast Asian Games Federation with supervision by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Council of Asia.

http://www.floorball.org/news.asp?id_tiedote=3068

3- The Southeast Asian Games is also referred to as the SEA Games are a small multi-sport event involving participants from the countries of Southeast Asia held every two years.

The Games are under regulation from the Southeast Asian Games Federation (SAGF). The SAGF was formally the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games Federation (SAPGF) as they organised the Southeast Asian Peninsular Games, when the Federation changed its name and the Games name in 1977.

4- The Olympic Games are held in a different country on each occasion.
http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/the-olympics?q=the+Olympic+games#the-olympics__3

5-The Olympic Games are a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions.
The Olympics - encyclopedia article about The Olympics.

I feel confused about which 'to be' is correct. Help, please!

 

[Huda-M]

Where they have reffered to the SEA Games as an 'event' on the whole, 'IS' is used, and where they have referred to the 'components of the event induvidually' (the particular games in this case), 'ARE' is used.

As an example:

The Conference is worth participating in.
The aspects/modules of the Conference are worth participating in.

(I'm not a teacher, a teacher will guide you better!)

 

[hoangkha]

Sorry. The title must be "The Olympic/Asian/SEA Games with plural or singular verbs?"

 

[JoelTC]

It partly is a matter of choice, but as Huda-M noted, it also depends on if the games are being talked about as a collective whole (the Games) or as a group of individual units (the games).

It varies depending on culture, too. British/Australian/Canadian reporters are generally more likely to use "are" when referring to collective items like "the SEA Games" or "the crowd" or "the family." Americans tend to prefer singulars. I as an American would be likely to say "My family is a bunch of jokers," but a Brit would probably say "my family are a bunch of jokers." At least, that's what I've noticed, speaking as an American fan of British culture.