Grammar: Word classes: Nouns

Countable and uncountable nouns

What are collective nouns?

Collective nouns are words that refer to groups of people such as staff, team, family, (and occasionally animals, eg herd, flock, swarm, pack).

Should my students use a singular verb or a plural verb after collective nouns?

The verb after a collective noun is typically in the singular, but may be in the plural, especially in British English:

The Gong family was a very happy one. 
The Gong family were forced to leave China in 1949.  

The reason why the verb can be used both in the singular or the plural, is that the group which is represented by the collective noun can be seen either as a single unit, or as a group of individuals. For teaching purposes, it is better to tell students to use a singular verb after collective nouns.

I have heard a colleague talking about "two staffs". Is this correct?

No. If the colleague was referring to two individuals who are members of the staff, then this is not grammatically correct. 

Although a plural verb can be used after a collective noun, these nouns do not behave like plural forms of countable nouns. The main difference is that numbers cannot be used directly in front of them without changing the meaning. For example, if you want to refer to two individuals, you cannot say:

Two crew were rescued by the tugboat.

In this case it is necessary to use the preposition of + definite article:

Two of the crew were rescued by the tugboat. 

Another way of referring to individuals is to use the word member:

Two members of the crew were rescued by the tugboat.

(Grammatically, it is possible to say two crews, but the speaker would be referring to two separate groups of people, for example, the crews of two different ships, not to two individuals. In the same way, it is grammatically possible to talk about two staffs, but this would mean, for example, two large groups of teachers from two different schools.)

Which words are commonly classified as collective nouns?

Here is a list of common collective nouns: