Page 233 - Basic English Usage

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Cattle, people and police are plural words with no singular.
Cattle are selling for very high prices this year.
(NOT Gattlets- setting ...)
The police are searching for a tall dark man with a beard.
(NOT Fhe-peteets-searching .. . )
People are funny. (NOT Peepleistunny-)

304 singular and plural: singular words ending in -s

Some words that end in -s are singular. Some important examples are:

billiards, draughts and other names of games ending in -s
Draughts is an easier game than chess.
measles, rabies and other names of illnesses ending in -s
Rabies is widespread in Europe. We hope we can keep it out of
Britain.

athletics, politics, mathematics and other words ending in -ics
The mathematics that | did at school has not been very useful to me.

news
Ten o'clock. Here is the news.

305 singular and plural: singular words with plural verbs

We often use plural verbs with words like family, team, government,
which refer to groups of people.
My family have decided to move to Nottingham.
We also use plural pronouns, and we use who, not which.
My family are wonderful. They do all they can for me.
‘How are the team?’ ‘They are very confident.’ ‘Not surprising.
They’re the only team who have ever won ail their matches right
through the season. '

We prefer singular verbs and pronouns (and which) if we see the group
as an ‘impersonal’ unit. (For example, in statistics.)
The average family (which has four members) .. .

A number ofand a group of are used with plural nouns, pronouns and
verbs.
A number of my friends feel that they are not properly paid for the
work they do. (NOT A-numberetmy tiendsteets ...)

For singular and plural with a /ot of, see 205.2.