I received the following question about singular/plural usage. It’s one a lot of people struggle with, so I’m posting it here, with my response.
The basic question is: should a group of people referred to by a singular name (the CBC, the government, One Direction) be considered singular or plural when it comes to subject-verb agreement?
Q: James and I are putting a proposal together for funding for our duo. We are both editing the application, and I’ve noticed we’re of differing opinions on singular/plural usage. We call our group The Open Window, which (to me) is a singular entity. We then use “they” to refer to members of The Open Window. See below:
The Open Window has full confidence that with the infrastructure they have put in place and continue to build on, this album will be a great success.
You are the last word on grammar, so we’ll go with what you say!
A: The answer is…Well there could be several answers. But consistency is the most important thing, otherwise it sounds as if you don’t know what you’re doing. Pick one and stick with it. In North America, people use the singular more often for a group (The Open Window has), whereas in the UK they use the plural more (TOW have), which really means that either is OK, but singular would be more usual in a North American context.
If you think it sounds funny, you can reword to avoid the problem wherever possible. Here is the original sentence:
The Open Window has full confidence that with the infrastructure they have put in place and continue to build on, this album will be a great success.
Instead of “they have,” you could say “The members of TOW have” or “Smith and Erikson have,” and then it’s clearly and necessarily plural. Or you could say something like this, which avoids the issue and would be my preference:
TOW has put in place and continues to build on a solid infrastructure to ensure the success of this album.
Good luck with the grant application!