Own Horn

[Greg Berge]

Everytime I read this thread's title, I think of Beeeej holding a placard:

Own horn.  Will blow for food.

[Beeeej]

Greg, didn't we say we'd never speak of that again?  I was young, I needed the money.

Beeeej

[Greg Berge]

> The noun's ability to be broken down into small components (i.e. the team is made up of players) has no bearing whatsoever on subject-verb agreement

So "the French" is singular?

I haven't whipped out my Strunk and White, but I would swear that common usage (1) distinguishes between singular and plural collective nouns and (2) leaves it sufficiently ambiguous that there are cases that can go either way.

FWIW, I would classify team names as plural nouns, whether or not they follow the convention of ending in an "s."  So, just as I wouldn't say "the Catamounts is," I wouldn't say "the Big Red is."

[jtwcornell91]

Would you say "The Red Sox is"? ;-)

[Greg Berge]

I would say "the Red Sox suck."