Question

Pick out the collective noun(s) from the following sentence:
There is a colony of ants in the backyard.
a)colony
b)ants
c)backyard
d)colony, ants

Answer 1

Hint: One needs to understand the concept of collective nouns and be aware of what collective nouns are used to represent sets of what entities.

Complete step-by-step answer:
 In the given sentence, nouns are “colony”, “ants”, “backyard”. The collective nouns are basically written in the form “a swarm of bees”, “a group of people”, “a band of musicians”, etc. Option a, “colony”, a set of ants is in fact called a colony, hence it is the correct option.

Option b, “ants” implies a plural form while the collective nouns are usually in singular form, also, ants are entities that make up a set, hence it an incorrect option.

Option c, “backyard” refers to a place or a location and not a set of entities, it is an incorrect option.

Option d, “colony, ants” includes “ants” which is not a collective noun, as discussed above, hence it is incorrect as well.

Note: The most important of solving this question is being familiar with the idea of collective nouns, since some of them can be baffling and difficult to comprehend, for example, “an unkindness of ravens”, “a nest of rumours”, etc. But, sometimes, these questions can be solved just through common sense, like in this question, “ants” is the entity itself and a backyard is a location, so is less likely to be a collective noun.