and today I'm going to tell you something about collective nouns.

今天我要來告訴大家一些關於集合名詞的小奧秘

Collective nouns are often called group nouns.

集合名詞常被稱作團體名詞

That is because they represent a number of things together.

這是因為它們代表一群事物的集合體

Examples are:

例如：

government, family and team.

政府、家庭、團隊

So, what's the big deal?

重點來了

The special thing about these collective nouns

這些集合名詞的特別之處在於

is that they can be singular or plural.

它們能夠是單數也可以是複數型態

If you consider your family to be a group of individuals,

如果你認為你的家庭是由一群單獨的個體組成

then the pronoun is they and the verb is plural.

那麼代名詞就是 they，搭配複數型動詞

My family are happy.

我的家庭很快樂

But your family can also be considered as a single unit,

另一方面，你的家庭也能夠被視為一個單位

a machine that all works together.

就像一台機器，裡面的成員各司其職

In this case, the pronoun is it and the verb is singular.

這時候代名詞就是 it，搭配單數型動詞

My family is happy.

我的家庭很快樂

This does not apply to all collective nouns,

但這種情況不適用於全部的集合名詞

so be careful.

小心了

Police and staff are always plural.

警察與員工都是複數型態