Do Collective Nouns Take a Singular or Plural Verb?

I haven’t been able to dig up enough research but from what little I found, I culled the following. Bear in mind that this is an etic point of view.

With collective nouns, as with any parts of speech, it is the intent and meaning which the speaker wishes to convey that determines usage in a cultural context. E.g., in British English, ‘committee’ is traditionally plural; in American English, singular.

I may be wrong.

Spanish collective nouns are typically singular, much like in English.

Where there seems to be some inconsistency is when the speaker meant to refer to the members in a collective noun individually, (El reba?o de hembras deben integrarse en el de los machos), it takes a plural verb;
when the collective noun is taken in its entirety, it takes a singular verb.

Logic dictates that there are instances where referring to the individuals in the group would not make much common sense; e.g.” Un reba?o de nubes negras pasea por el cielo.”
In this case the verb is singular.

Where it is difficult (for me) is when the collective noun refers to people (la mitad de los cibernautas ser?n …), animate, or to inanimate objects associated with people (La mitad de las empresas … realizar? …). My inclination here is to use the plural IF I mean each of the individuals in the group; otherwise, singular.

In the last example,”Una docena de chicos se alimenta en el basura.”, may I argue thus: that ‘una docena’ is singular in meaning; therefore it takes a singluar verb. Were it ‘Dos docenas’ it is plural.

My conclusion on this is as follows; and I’ll be way out on a limb because I am speaking as an outsider of the Spanish culture.

Typically, collective nouns in Spanish are singular.

Common sense logic and the intended meaning dictate whether the collective noun takes a singular or a plural verb. Both singular and plural are correct, and are correct ONLY when it conveys truly what the speaker wants to say.

Then maybe, I’m way over my head.

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More on Distinguishing Between Ser and Estar

From the mailbox:

In ser vs. estar, my tutor has given me the following guideline:

One of the instances in which ser is used: With adjectives (like bueno or malo). El precio no es malo.

And one of the instances in which estar is used: With adverbs (like bien or mal). El precio no está mal.

Question 1: Is there merit to idea of using ser with adjectives and estar with adverbs?

Question 2: You have written an article entitled "Using Spanish Adjectives as Adverbs." But can the converse also be true? Can adverbs (like mal) function as adjectives?

Question 3: Which brings us to the most basic element of this confusion: Is "price" an "essential characteristic" (ser) or a "temporary condition" (estar)? Are there certain situations (like the price of something) which could go either way, which would then require the above distinction of adjectives vs. adverbs?

Great questions! The matter of ser vs. estar certainly can be a matter of confusion — and that's only partly because both words can be translated as "to be." In some situations, native speakers don't always carefully distinguish between them, and even when they do the difference isn't always readily translatable (such as when discussing marital status).

To answer your last question first, both estar and ser can be used with price. A quick web search suggests the following are used in increasing order of frequency to say "the price is good":

El precio es bueno.El precio está bueno.El precio está bien. (This is by far the most common.)

The same pattern is followed in expressing the opposite, with "El precio está mal" the overwhelming preference.

Your questions prompted me to put together a lesson detailing the use of estar as a way of expressing impressions that the speaker has of something. With that in mind, it's logical for estar to be the verb of choice here — usually, when you're talking about whether the price of something is good or bad, you're giving an impression rather than describing a quality that's inherent in something.

As to why the adverb bien is preferred over the adjective bueno, I can't really tell you except to say that bien and mal are commonly used with estar and are preferred over bueno and malo in a wide variety of circumstances. While under some circumstances está bien and está bueno are understood differently, I'm not aware of any way of predicting what those differences will be.

And now to answer your other questions:

1. Ser is almost always followed by a word or phrase that functions as an adjective or noun. It doesn't make sense to use ser with an adverb. Estar, on the other hand, can be followed by an adjective or adverb (or, if you're talking about mere existence, can stand alone).

2. While it is possible for some adjectives (e.g., claro and rápido) to function as adverbs, the reverse isn't true. In fairnesss, though, I must say that some grammarians would disagree with me. In a sentence such as "me siento bien" (I'm feeling good) or "huele mal" (it smells bad), some would see bien and mal as functioning as invariable adjectives. I don't, though. I see them as adverbs; it's just that estar and oler function differently than do their English counterparts.

I hope you find this helpful. Although such talk of grammar can ending up sounding arcane, as you learn and study Spanish you'll develop a feel for what "sounds right." Sometimes, that provides as good of a rule to follow as any.

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Why Add Me to a Simple Sentence?

From the mailbox:

I have a grammar question that I'd like to hear your thoughts on. I started attending a Spanish-speaking church a while back and I hear several greetings. Here are some of them:

Dios te bendiga.
Dios le bendiga.
Dios lo bendiga.
Dios me lo bendiga

I believe I understand what is going on grammatically on the first three but the last one I don't have a clue. I understand it to be a little more intimate sounding than the others but I have no idea what is going on grammatically. Can you share a few thoughts on that and if this type of construction is used in other places?

Thanks for the question! Although your question seems pretty simple, it actually touches on quite a few points of grammar. For first-year students who don't understand even your first sentence, I'll explain first what's happening grammatically in your first three examples, starting with the first, which is the simplest.

"Dios te bendiga" is a shorter way of saying "Que Dios te bendiga" (which you'll also sometimes hear). That, in turn, you can think of as a shorter way of saying something like "Quiero que Dios te bendiga" — literally translated, that would be something like "I want that God bless you." As explained in our lessons on translating "may" and indirect commands, the sentence structure of "que + noun + verb in the subjunctive mood" (the noun frequently comes after the verb) is a common way of saying that you'd like someone else to do something or for something to occur. For example, you could say something like "que duerma el bebé" to mean "may the baby sleep" or even "let the baby sleep."

In the example of "(que) Dios te bendiga," Dios (God) is the noun and bendiga is the present subjunctive form of irregularly conjugated bendecir (to bless). Finally, te is direct-object pronoun meaning "you."

The next two sentences — "(que) Dios le bendiga" and "(que) Dios lo bendiga — are grammatically the same. The difference is that they use more formal pronouns — le in an example of leísmo and lo. If you were female, la would be used instead.

Now, we'll finally get to the original question. If "(que) Dios lo bendiga" means "God bless you," what is the me doing in "(que) Dios me lo bendiga"? How does it change the meaning of the sentence?

The me here is an indirect-object pronoun meaning "me." Indirect objects are often used to indicate who is an indirect recipient of an action. In this case, lo is the direct object — it is lo or "you" that is being blessed, while the me (the speaker of the sentence) is an indirect beneficiary. If you were translating the sentence directly, you would say something like "May God bless you for me." Less literally, a translation could be something like "It would please me if God were to bless you." In real life, we don't have to translate that elaborately, so the me doesn't have to be translated. Just think of "Dios me lo bendiga" as another way of saying "May God bless you."

As to times when we would say something grammatically like that, it just isn't that common where we'd be speaking to someone and have occasion to use that person as an indirect object of a third party's action. But here's one example: You could say something like "Que ella me lo contacte a usted" (I've added the "a usted" for clarity) as a way of saying something like "I'll have her contact you for me."

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Where Does the Adverb Go?

RE: Your link: Where do adjectives go …

I’m lost here.

I think I understand the intent here. However, I translated your example (reproduced below) as:

“The cup fills with water;”

Your example: La taza llena de agua, the cup full of water; …

Instead, could I say this?

La taza, llenado de agua,; The cup, filled with water, …

Straying from the intent, may I say

La taza de aqua (the cupful of water)

Then, again, not trying to preserve the intent, may I say

La taza, de llena de agua,; The cup filled with water (the cup, full of water) …

Which is preferable please?

Thanks again for your help.

Thanks again.

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When To Shorten (Apocopate) Ciento

From the mailbox:

In the below, why isn't it cien instead of ciento?

[Taken from the email course "Dichos, refranes y citas"] Más vale el pájaro en mano que ciento volando.

(The sentence literally means "The bird in hand is worth more than 100 flying," the equivalent of the English proverb "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.")

You're right that ciento (the word for "hundred") is sometimes shortened to cien; that's a process known as apocopation, and the same thing can be done to a few other words, such as grande and primero. However, this shortening is done only before a noun, as in cien casas, or "100 houses," where casas is a noun, or before a noun phrase, as in las cien mejores canciones ("the 100 best songs").

In the sentence you gave, volando is not a noun — it's a verb form known as a gerund or present participle. Here, the gerund is used to indicate that the birds are in the process of performing an action — in this case flying. Ciento here, by the way, is functioning as a pronoun, and pronouns are never shortened through apocopation, only certain adjectives.

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Changes Proposed in Spanish Spelling

Some spelling changes may be coming to the Spanish language — and not everyone is happy about it.

According to articles recently appearing in BBC Mundo, El Universal of Mexico City, Bio-Bio La Radio of Chile, among numerous other sources, the proposed changes are subject to ratification later this month in Guadalajara, Mexico. The changes have become a hot topic of debate across the Spanish-speaking world, with critics claiming decrying the loss of the traditional rules. As one Twitter user, Ricardo Ortiz, put it today in the ongoing debate on that social network, "Aora ke la #RAE elimina reglas ansestrales dejemos de preokuparnos por la forma de eskrivir: todo sera correto en el futuro." Loosely translated: "Nou that the Academi iz gitting ridd of tradishonal rools lets kwit worying about hou to right: Awl wil be write in the fuchure."

Among the planned changes:

The ch and ll would no longer be considered separate letters of the alphabet, giving it 27 letters (the English alphabet plus ñ). The names of some letters would also be clarified or changed: B would become be, v would become uve, and y would become ye instead of i griega.Orthographic accents could be dropped in words such as sólo (alone) as an adverb, truhán (rogue) and guión (hyphen or movie script).Ex would be considered a prefix that can be attached to words: Thus "ex-president" would become expresidente rather than ex presidente. However, if ex refers to a two-or-more-word phrase, it would be retained separately: ex ministro de defensa (former defense minister). The same would go for pro and anti.Use of the q would be dropped in words of foreign origin: Iraq would become Irak (it's already spelled that way in some areas), quórum would become cuórum, and Qatar would become Catar.

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Jorge Chávez has been an internet entrepreneur and marketer since 2002. began to learn Spanish, once was 30, is now bilingual English-Spanish. is monolingual, family, friends and clients who only speak Spanish and others who only speak English.