Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Chan-Seung Lee]

[Philo Kevetch]

Annyonghasaeyo Lee Chan-seung -

A =one

team = it (it has)

so - "A team....has..."

they are talking about the 'team'

If it were "Teams"

then "Teams....have...." would be correct (teams = they...they have)

'scientists' is just telling you who is on/in the team

If you omit 'A team' and change the sentence to "Scientists have made a map...."

then you are talking about 'Scientists' and have would be correct.

Philo

[Chan-Seung Lee]

Thanks for your kind reply, Philo!

I have one more question about 'a group' similar to 'a team' which is as follows.


1.A group of scientists have made a map of the DNA in the human body and the body's secrets are being analyzed.
2.A group of scientists has made a map of the DNA in the human body and the body's secrets are being analyzed.

Which is correct, #1 or #2?

Thanks.

[myprofe]

Both are correct. The reason is that in British English it's more common to refer to a group in the plural while in American English a group is singular.

A team of astronomers have found a colossal black hole so ancient, they're not sure how it had enough time to grow to its current size, about 10 billion times the mass of the Sun. http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/heavy_blazar_040628.html

You can do an exercise here to see some of the other differences between British and American English.
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I'm never going to learn if you don't correct my mistakes!

[Philo Kevetch]

Hello myprofe -

Thank you for the useful information and link.

One of the many things I enjoy about the English language is its

seemingly endless variety in usage.

The forum is fortunate to have you participate.

Sincerely, Philo

[myprofe]

I guess you could say that I learned English the hard way - in front of a group of ESL students.
Here's the another link that I forget to post yesterday.
http://www.myprofe.com/whichword-2/aob1.htm
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I'm never going to learn if you don't correct my mistakes!