Number in English

The person-number relationship between subject verb and noun in English is simple compared with the large number of suffixes in Latin, yet the English system is not straightforward. One complexity is that while we are here focusing on the verb system in standard English, most of the population of the UK speak some non-standard variety. Many non-standard varieties differ from the standard one; in some, speakers have generalized the -s suffix to all persons – We sits quietly in the classroom, you knows what I’m talking about, while in others the speakers have removed the -s suffix – She live in that street.

Even speakers of standard English itself disagree over whether a singular or plural verb should be used with certain nouns. For instance, committee is a singular noun but is used to refer to groups of more than one person. Many speakers and writers use either a singular or a plural verb depending on whether they view a particular committee as several people or as a single unit. The committee are discussing this proposal today presents the committee as several individuals who have to discuss the matter and work out a decision. The committee is discussing the proposal today presents the committee in a more impersonal manner, as a single unit. Every generation, however, appears to contain speakers who believe that if a noun is singular the verb should always be singular. Such speakers are becoming rarer.