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Please help.
1. All my family is/ are present.
2. All of my family is/ are present.
TIA
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<<All my family is/ are present.>>
It depends on whether you're talking about English in the UK or North America. Here in North America people would say "my family is present" because "family" is a singular noun. However, in UK English "family," being a collective unit, is analyzed as a noun which receives plural agreement with verbs. Similar differences apply to words like "team" and "couple" or words describing such things. Compare:
UK: "Manchester United are winning"
NA: "Manchester United is winning"
UK: "The newly wed couple were taking a walk"
NA: "The newly wed couple was taking a walk"
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I'm no grammarian and can't give you an official answer but "All (of) my family is present" sounds more natural to me. Often when in doubt about something regarding grammar or spelling, you can get clues by checking out the internet. Of course, I don't mean to imply that you can't ask us on Antimoon too!
Some Internet examples I found supporting the use of 'is' are (no pun intended):
1) "The Thorne family IS rich with history..."
2) "Easy, whose family IS very wealthy indeed, is brought up to regard everyone as his equal..."
3) "They are participating in the fundraising for Jeremy’s care and the family IS very thankful."
4) "The Vanderhof family IS very large, very loving - and very eccentric."
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I think in actual fact it can be a little more complicated than a straight US/UK split although there may be a certain bias.
To some extent it depends whether you wish to show whether a group is united as one or split, for example:
"They are participating in the fundraising for Jeremy’s care and the family IS very thankful." This is probably always the preferred sentence both sides of the Atlantic as they are united as a whole.
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What about the police and the government? They are or it is?
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<<I think in actual fact it can be a little more complicated than a straight US/UK split although there may be a certain bias.
To some extent it depends whether you wish to show whether a group is united as one or split, for example:
"They are participating in the fundraising for Jeremy’s care and the family IS very thankful." This is probably always the preferred sentence both sides of the Atlantic as they are united as a whole. >>
Yeah that's true. I was just speaking in general terms that when presented with group terms like "family" UK English prefers agreement with plural forms of verbs rather than singular as would be done in NA English. Anyway, the distinction between when to use "is/are" with "family" in UK English is interesting as family would always get "is" here in any context. I would say both:
"All my family is present"
and
"The family is very thankful"
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Tnx, Kirk, I didn't know there was a transatlantic divide here.
Brennus, tnx for your time. I'd never use ARE in those sentences you quoted.
You see,
1. All my family is/ are present.
2. All of my family is/ are present
are taken from a quiz and they supposedly receive different agreement.
I am inclined to
All my family are present = all the members.
All of my family is present = as a whole
But I am not quite sure, that's why I am asking.
Unfortunately Google is omnivorous and stores a lot of rubbish along with good things.
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