My side of the family is/are Mets fans.

[GracieWrites]

This week, one of my students presented a tricky grammar question that's been on my mind for days. Which of the following is correct:

"My side of the family is Mets fans."

or

"My side of the family are Mets fans."

My sense is that it has to be are, because "is fans" would never make grammatical sense...but "my side are" also doesn't make seem to work. Could anyone explain the logic of why one of these is more correct than the other? Many thanks in advance!

 

[5jj]

Welcome to the forum, GracieWrites. :hi:

It's fine in BrE to use a plural verb with a singular group noun. That being so, we have no problem at all with "My side of the family are Mets fans."

 

[Yankee]

Either way, as my ID suggests, my issue would be with your side of the family. :-D

Yankee

 

[Tdol]

Could anyone explain the logic of why one of these is more correct than the other?

Proximity is an argument, though traditionalists do not always approve. In this view, we don't count grammatical number and go with the words and phrases being used. Side is singular, but I can't see any reason for using a singular verb- being British of a certain age, I would use the plural with family and see even less reason before fans.