See also formal versus notional agreement. British English tends to favor notional, prime example being sports commentary: "Liverpool are playing well" versus "

See also formal versus notional agreement. British English tends to favor notional, prime example being sports commentary: "Liverpool are playing well" versus "Boston is playing well". Wikipedia highlights some other good examples: "The staff is busy" versus "The staff are busy", "The Rolling Stones are a classic band" versus "The Rolling Stones is a classic band". The differences sound stilted if you're not used to them. Except, of course, when they're poetic: "Oliver's Army are on their way/Oliver's Army is here to stay". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_collective_nouns#Metonymic_merging_of_grammatical_number http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_collective_nouns#Metony... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_differences#Formal_and_notional_agreement http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_di...