Korean Job Discussion Forums

[stumptown]

I just had an argument with a Korean English teacher about that phrase. She showed me the book that she uses and it had two phrases: "My family is very large" and "My family get up early." I found the second phrase to be really awkward. I told her that it wasn't right, just like saying "My family go to church." Unless this is some British English thing I'm not aware of, could someone help me come up with a way to explain why it isn't correct. I get stuck on explanations sometimes.

[SPINOZA]

I assume you think it should be "my family GETS up early/goes to church"? (because a family is a singular thing)

Interesting question. It's like....Americans say of a band "Black Sabbath is a great band", yet the British say "Black Sabbath ARE a great band".

My view...."my family GOES to Church" and "My family GO to church" are both valid, yet "my family are very large" is not (unless of course we wish to say our family members are very fat/large).

[igotthisguitar]

As weird as it may sound ( i agree ) i think technically it would be "GET".

Why?

My family = THEY ... not HE or SHE etc ...

So, THEY agrees with GET not THEY GETS ...

Get it?

[stumptown]

[Jeonnam Jinx]

Just my two cents' worth, I would simply say "gets" because "my family" is a singular noun. Of course, "family" is not a "he" or a "she" in the third person singular (nor is it "they"), but "it," as there is only one family to which you are referring.

[krats1976]

'Family' is a collective noun. In American English, that's treated as a singular noun, so "My family gets up early" would be correct in the US.

[denverdeath]

Why don't you tell the teacher to insert "members" after family to make it sound better. That is, "My family members get up early." I guess because I'm from Canada, the example given sounds REALLY strange. I would go with "My family gets(not get) up early" as well.

[sheba]

Verb grouping

Group 1 - he, she it (Gets, likes, wants, has, walks, wears)

Group 2 - I, you, we, they (get, like, want, has, walk, wear)

'Family' can be classed as 'it' or 'they'. However, I believe in this case it is classed as they.

My brother likes cake - he likes cake.
Mum and I like cake - we like cake
My family gets up early - it gets up early
My family get up early - they get up early

[riley]

I just googled on collective nouns and found this.
http://www.learnenglish.org.uk/grammar/archive/collective_nouns.html

So, while I, as an American, use collective nouns as singular, maybe some of you are British, so you feel comfortable teaching collectives as plural.
Of course, if family is plural, what is families? Can both be plural?

[Privateer]

Ah yes, collective nouns.

I'm English but this still sounds weird to me (probably been here too long):

"My bank are awful."
"The company are doing well."

It's been a long time - maybe 200 years? - since we thought of a company as a band of gentlemen rather than a single corporate entity.

On the other hand, with some nouns, both singular and plural forms sound ok to me. I suspect many other Brits would be comfortable with both these days:

"The family is going out to dinner." / "The family are going out to dinner."
"The team is playing well." / "The team are playing well."

It just depends if you think of a family as a unit or as a collection of individuals. Oh and for the plural 'families' it's also "The families are going out to dinner.".

So why not just simplify and treat all collective nouns as singular? Well you can go wrong that way too:

"The team took its seats." vs "The team took their seats."

Which one sounds better to you? Which one comes most naturally? (I nicked these examples out of a book by the way).

[Tiberious aka Sparkles]

[peppermint]

[J.B. Clamence]

I say "get" is incorrect. It should be "gets". And I'm American, if it matters. I would never say, "My family get up early."

[Jeonnam Jinx]

[ontheway]

Yes. "My family gets up early" sounds better.

A family is a single thing. A team is a single thing.

British English is different. They also say "mumf" instead of "month". At least in the Harry Potter movie I watched last night.