The individual (plural or singular) (2025)

lingobingo said:

That doesn’t make much sense. An individual is a/one person, and it takes a singular verb. If you’re referring to a number of individuals, then of course you have to use a plural verb.

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But when I am referring to a number of individulas saying “

” ? Should I use a plural verb (with “the individual”)?

lingobingo said:

That doesn’t make much sense. An individual is a/one person, and it takes a singular verb. If you’re referring to a number of individuals, then of course you have to use a plural verb.

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Is it like with “the unemployed” ? Should we use plural with “the unemployed” ?

lingobingo said:

I see what you mean. No you don’t use a plural verb when using a singular noun, even when you mean it in a collective way, i.e. the individual/the unemployed = individuals/unemployed people in general.

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Thanks a lot

lingobingo said:

I see what you mean. No you don’t use a plural verb when using a singular noun, even when you mean it in a collective way, i.e. the individual/the unemployed = individuals/unemployed people in general.

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So which way we say “the unemployed/ the unemployed individual is /are unhappy people” ?

AnythingGoes said:

You'd say the unemployed are unhappy but the unemployed individual is unhappy.

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Why ? What’s the difference ? But the meaning is the same ?

AnythingGoes said:

You'd say the unemployed are unhappy but the unemployed individual is unhappy.

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lingobingo said:

I see what you mean. No you don’t use a plural verb when using a singular noun, even when you mean it in a collective way, i.e. the individual/the unemployed = individuals/unemployed people in general.

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Please explain , I don’t understand .. we use a plural verb with “the unemployed” and a singular with “the individual”?

Sorry, sorry! My post #5 was wrong.

The employed/the unemployed/the rich/the poor/the young/the old, etc. — these all refer to people of a certain type and they all take a plural verb.

But the individual takes a singular verb, even though it refers to individuals in general.

lingobingo said:

Sorry, sorry! My post #5 was wrong.

The employed/the unemployed/the rich/the poor/the young/the old, etc. — these all refer to people of a certain type and they all take a plural verb.

But the individual takes a singular verb, even though it refers to individuals in general.

Click to expand...

Thanks

When thinking about this topic, I use the two bold terms below to keep the ideas clear.

Sometimes we use a singular noun as a collective noun (to mean a group of people). As the posts above say, it takes a plural verb.

Other times we use a singular noun as an example of all similar people or things. Then it takes a singular verb:

A banana tree grows very rapidly. (all banana trees grow rapidly)
A dog cannot see colors. (no dogs can see colors)
Did Jesus say that a rich man can't get into heaven?