Collectives

Objective

To explore collective nouns.

Nouns usually refer to one thing, person or animal. If we want to indicate that there are more than one, we use the plural form: books, pupils, horses. But some nouns mean already more than one and therefore they have no plural form. Can you guess the nouns from the description?

• chickens, geese and ducks kept on a farm for their meat and eggs Answerpoultry
• objects like tables, chairs, beds, cupboards Answerfurniture
• cows and bulls kept as farm animals for their milk and meat Answercattle

Nouns like the ones below have something in common and are therefore called collective nouns. Can you explain what they have in common? Sort them in to two groups:

 

Some nouns are names for things that consist of two equal parts which are joined together. They only occur in a plural form. Can you sort these nouns into two groups and describe the kinds of nouns in each group?

Some kinds of objects usually appear in small groups that are collected together. Read the sentences below and fill the gap with an appropriate collective noun. Click 'hint' to see some possible options. 

1. She arrived with a lovely _____ of flowers. 
2. When the police opened the suitcase, they found _____s of 100 Euro notes. 
3. I can't get into your room because of the _____s of dirty clothes! 
4. Time to go through the _____ of letters that have arrived. 
5. He decorated the cake with a ______ of berries. 
6. They brought ______s of firewood for the fire. 
7. All the books had been arrangaed in ______s, so that they could be put into boxes. 

Hint!bunch, bundle, cluster, heap, pile, stack, wad

This lesson is adapted (with permission) from Words and Meanings: A Systematic Guide for the Teaching of English Vocabulary, by Gabriele Stein.