Question

Pick out the collective noun(s) from the following sentence.
A group of students fought in the street.
a) group, students, street
b) students
c) street
d) group

Answer 1

Hint: A collective noun is a count noun that denotes a bunch of individuals.

Complete step by step answer:
A collective noun is a collection of things taken as a whole. They are words for single things that are made up of more than one person, place, animal, thing, or idea. A collective noun is usually a singular noun.

Now that we know what a collective noun is, let’s look at the given options one by one and try to identify each part of speech:

a) group, students, street - ‘Group’ can be identified as a collective noun. However, the words ‘students’ and ‘street’ are not collective nouns. So, this is an incorrect option.
b) students - This word is a common noun, which is plural. Even if we take the singular version of the given noun, ‘student’, it still isn’t a collective noun, because it is not made up of multiple things. So, this is not a correct option.
c) street - This is a singular common noun. It does not denote a bunch of multiple things. So, it is not a collective noun. Hence, this is an incorrect option.
d) group - This word is a singular noun. It denotes a collection of multiple things, in this case, ‘students’. It is made up of many other nouns, however, it acts as a singular noun. So, this is the correct option.

It is easy to recognise collective nouns, because they are usually made up of collections of other nouns.

Note: Use the elimination method to identify the required collective noun.