I work on a UK technology news/reviews web site. Our style guide on groups is that they are always singular - but some plurals still slip through to be caught by our all-star team in production. When I started writing for the paper predecessor to the site, it felt very awkward to use the singular in those cases, but now I couldn't do it any other way.

Most of the time.

Interesting—I wonder if things are changing, and if so whether it's because of American usage?

American here; although tending toward the singular verb much of the time, I usually stop to consider whether the situation in question is intended to focus more on the group as a whole or its constituent members. In the case of the latter, I use plural verbs, even if I do sometimes get a sense it looks a bit British.

In Australia, you'd say the following in relation to my Australian Rules football team:

- The Richmond Tigers are never going to win a game (always plural)

- Richmond is never going to win a game or Richmond are never going to win a game (either is correct)

Very often, while writing letters or e-mails, I hesitate when coming to a company name. "Delta Contracting has/have commenced the works on the 4th July"; "Rogers is/are late"; etc. Most of the time it's in the singular, but not always. It seems to depend on the mood, or some random brain (mal)function.

My evidence-free impression is that in the US people tend to use singular verbs with corporate nouns like company names but then use plural pronouns to refer to them. So it's "Microsoft is", but later "they are".

I have decided that "media" is singular or plural depending on what seems right. I actually have an idea about how to explain when you should use which, but there's no real reason to make the rule more explicit than I just did.

This was a very difficult topic for my advanced class in Jordan. After working through a dozen or so confusing examples, they were trying to find a principle to apply that would cover every situation. In addition, British English is still pretty official, at least in public schools (and the Jordan Timesproofreaders from India) and there is still a huge British influence even if it did switch to American foreign aide in the days of the late King Hussein. Jordanian students expect a teacher to tell them something definite, so finally I told them if they are taking a British placement test use plural and if they are taking an American test, use singular.

I find both 'Arsenal is the most pathetic team in the English League' and 'Arsenal have always been supported by scumbags' to be acceptable.

I wouldn't use 'Rogers is late' because it implies that the person rather than the company is late whereas 'Rogers are late' isn't even grammatical unless you're talking about the company.

Extracts from yesterday's Queen's speech to Parliament (full speech here)
"My government is committed to helping families and businesses through difficult times"
"My government is committed to ensuring everyone has a fair chance in life"
"My government is committed to the Northern Ireland political process ..."
So, Queen's English seems to favour singular!
More plurals from the British National Corpus in this post.

I find both 'Arsenal is the most pathetic team in the English League' and 'Arsenal have always been supported by scumbags' to be acceptable. You could of course be finding the opinions acceptable, rather than the syntax! (Maybe the ambiguity was intentional).

I generally follow the (claimed to be standard) British practice of using the singular with "committee" if I'm thinking of it as a single entity, and plural if I thinking of it as a collection of members. One of the commenters at LanguageLog said As a Brit, I'd use either singular or plural agreement, but definitely singular in the Disrali example you cited. "A Shehaab committee were appointed…" would be wrong for me, probably because the article forces it to be singular. I agree with him about the article, but I don't think it's the only reason why a plural would be absurd, and I think it would be singular even if the article were The. At the moment of creation a committee doesn't have any members and hasn't done anything, so it's singular.

I read long ago that in the days when the (London) Times was a serious newspaper the editorial policy was that Her Majesty's Government took a capital G and a plural verb, whereas the government of anywhere else took a lower-case g and a singular verb. However, I don't now if this is authentic. Although this is obviously snobbish it has a certain logic -- one tends to think of one's own countries government as a set of individuals, but foreign governments as more monolithic.

Crown: I wouldn't use 'Rogers is late' because it implies that the person rather than the company is late whereas 'Rogers are late' isn't even grammatical unless you're talking about the company.

As I said, I was talking about companies.
> Rogers & Co Ltd

Put it this way, I always supported Chelsea.

So Rogers & Co Ltd uses 'it'. I suggest that whatever I say in the future about English usage, do the opposite, Sig, and you won't go far wrong.

It also uses pompous capitals it seems: "... engaging its 3000 employees into becoming customer focused individuals enthusiastically driving their brands in a shared spirit of Leadership, Openness and Dynamism."
I like people like that. They know what are the Important Things in Life.

I suggest that whatever I say in the future about English usage, do the opposite, Sig, and you won't go far wrong.
Er? Why this statement?

How can you have a shared spirit of leadership?

By being a hydra maybe?

BTW, the hydra was or were killed by Heracles?

The General Theory of Panties is in pieces. I was wrong, wrong, wrong. Then I suggested using pl. for Rogers & Co., where they themselves use sing. So I'm very consistent.

The General Theory of Panties is in pieces.

Not so much in my view. It is just a particular case of the String Theory, which itself hasn't been fully studied. It is therefore quite an open question still.

(If I were you I wouldn't rely that much on what that Rogers guy's English — nor for that matter would I trust any Martian. "Anglais je conne, français je débrie", as that local humorist used to say.)

"I wouldn't rely that much on what that Rogers guy's English"

The proof are in the pudding.

Yes it was. Look at this German hydra drawing. They are all facing the same way, they have zer shared spirit of leadership.

I think you have to say the hydra 'was', otherwise what happens when a couple of hydra come along?

But tell me what you think. Two heads are better than one.

Here y'are, AC-B, copied and pasted straight out of The Times's own internal styleguide:

'cap all governments, British and overseas, when referring to a specific one, eg, “the Government resigned last night”, “the Argentine Government sent troops”, and specific past administrations such as “the Heath Government”; only l/c when unspecific or one that has yet to be formed, eg, “all the governments since the war”, or “the next Tory/Labour government would raise pensions”.'

and on plurals: 'make corporate bodies and institutions singular unless this looks odd. Thus “The National Trust is ...”, but sports teams are plural, eg, “Arsenal were worth their 8-0 lead”. Whether singular or plural, always maintain consistency within a story'

"Arsenal have scored again"
“Arsenal were worth their 8-0 lead”

What is going on here? Are Arsenal sponsoring this post, Language? If you're looking for sponsors you should know that Chelsea have way more money than Arsenal. What's more, Chelsea are owned by a Russian person.

I could never have used singular pronouns there. 'Chelsea is owned by a Russian person' would imply you were talking about the place rather than the team.

Chelsea the place is probably owned by a Russian person by now as well. I'll go see if the Russians will give me large sums to make "Chelsea" the subject of all example sentences from now on.

That is the same in American. 'Pittsburg wear funny outfits' would be the baseball team, whereas 'Pittsburg wears funny outfits' would imply either nothing at all or some kind of cartoon with superheros dressing cities up in uniforms.

I think I once saw "The committee have a mind to ....".

Kron, have you ever actually met an American person?

Ask down at the INS they'll tell you I am one myself. So is my mother. And my daughter.

Ok, you're right, i haven't actually met one.

How many minds does or do the hydra have?

Odd - is anyone else having trouble with LL feed? I don't seem to have been notified of anything this week.

I work for a British company whose name sounds like a plural, "...ers", and the preferred copyediting housestyle is singular rather than plural ("...ers is", not "...ers are"). That does seem to be the prevailing UK English style.

A fascinating discussion that has taught me many things, including that fact that I am apparently a scumbag, as was my favourite author, the late Douglas Adams. On a usage not, here in Zild the pattern is similar to that cited in the AFL example. Thus, I could say either, AJP Crown's ranting notwithstanding, Arsenal are my favourite team" or, "Arsenal was Douglas Adams' favourite team". Victoria concordia crescit.

is anyone else having trouble with LL feed?

LL changed their feed ages ago and I even noticed a month or so later. Here is the home page where you can subscribe to their RSS. Hmm, I don't see any RSS Comments Feed there either, hint, hint.

Kron, no American would ever say "Pittsburg wear funny outfits," or even "Pittsburgh wear..." That's the kind of thing we fought a Revolution to get out from under.

I'm very sorry Stuart, I don't even watch football but Arsenal is bigger than both of us, literally* like a red rag to a bull for me. I grew up in North London, and I've supported Chelsea for 47 years. I don't mind Fulham, Spurs, any other North London team really. Just not... Arsenal. Why in the world would a New Zealander support Arsenal? I met a family of Norwegians once who supported Arsenal and they thought I'd be so pleased to hear it (I wasn't rude). I'm sorry to hear Douglas Adams supported Arsenal. If anyone seems like a Tottenham supporter it's him. Anyway watching sport is a complete waste of time. I hate pineapple too.

*would take too long to explain

Kron, no American would ever say "Pittsburg wear funny outfits,"

God, haven't you noticed? They have these really odd-looking little hats.

The style, as noted above, is that "companies are singular but unemployed journalists are plural", as a (rather unpleasant) boss of mine used to put it. This does lead to some apparent infelicities: "Lehman Brothers is in trouble" and "Allen & Overy is a law firm" for example.

Sports teams are plural.

But, here's the tricky bit, many sports teams are also companies (listed on the stock exchange in some cases). So whether Arsenal is one or many depends, in general terms, on whether it's appearing in the business pages or the sports pages.

"Arsenal is in need of additional financing" but "Arsenal have started the season badly with a resounding defeat".

Or Chelsea. Same rule applies, probably.

Virtual Linguist: "My government is committed to the Northern Ireland political process ..."
So, Queen's English seems to favour singular!

The BBC too: "Opposition politician Omar Barboza said it would strengthen the actions of a government which persecutes and harasses those who do not think as it does."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7769685.stm
(Opposition damns Chavez vote bid
Saturday, 6 December 2008)