The audience are?

English as a Second Language English Teacher Explanations (ESL Tests)
1

Test No. [color=blue]incompl/inter-13 “At the Theatre”, question 7

The … were so carried away with the acting that at the end of the play they all stood up and applauded.

(a) spectators
(b) watchers
(c) listeners
(d) audience

Test No. [color=blue]incompl/inter-13 “At the Theatre”, answer 7

The audience were so carried away with the acting that at the end of the play they all stood up and applauded.

Correct answer: (d) audience

Your answer was: [color=red]incorrect
The spectators were so carried away with the acting that at the end of the play they all stood up and applauded.
[size=200]_________________________[/size]

““Audience”” singular or plural?

2

Both singular and plural are acceptable after collective nouns as in: The Government is/are planning …

3

Hi, a happy New Year 2005 to all of you my friends :slight_smile: Can you please tell more about collective nouns, I mean how many are there in the English language? I suppose the word team is a collective noun too? What about the word group?

4

Hi FrankU,

You have a good 2005 too. As for your question is a great variety of collective nouns and the total number of words might be several thousands. Amongst the most frequently used ones are probably the following:

team
family
company
group
committee
crew
army
faculty
board
staff
personnel
band
gang
crowd
squad
panel[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEFL listening discussions: A conversation between a dorm mother and a resident[YSaerTTEW443543]