Collective nouns like team, staff, and family can pair with is or are depending on whether you mean one unit or many individuals.Source-1✅
Keep one logic per sentence: either unit (is) or members (are). Mixing them is where readers usually stumble.
- Grammar
- Subject–Verb Agreement
- Collective Nouns
- Formal Writing
One sentence can be “right” in more than one way when it comes to collective nouns. What matters is meaning and consistency, not a single universal rule.
Table of Contents
Correct Form For Team, Staff, and Family
A collective noun is a single word that names a group (like team or staff). It looks singular, but it can point to many.Source-2✅
- Singular Agreement
- One unit: “The team is ready.” → “its plan,” “it is.”
- Plural Agreement
- Many members: “The team are disagreeing.” → “their ideas,” “they are.”
- Consistency Check
- Pick one pattern for that noun in the sentence, then keep verb + pronouns aligned.
In many style traditions, collective nouns can be treated as singular or plural based on meaning, so is and are can both appear in well-edited writing.Source-3✅
Team
✅ The team is practicing today. Unit vibe.
✅ The team are wearing different shoes. Members vibe.
❌ The team are ready because it is excited. Mismatch.
Staff
✅ The staff is available at the front desk. Group as one.
✅ The staff are sharing their ideas. Individuals.
Tip-off in wording: “staff members” is plainly plural, so “are” often follows naturally.
Family
✅ My family is visiting this weekend. One unit.
✅ My family are arriving at different times. Separate people.
Plural form note: “families” is a regular plural, so “are” is the standard match.
Why The Mistake Happens
The confusion usually isn’t about the word itself. It’s about what the writer means in that moment: one unit or many individuals. The same noun can flip depending on context, which is why “team” is the classic troublemaker.Source-4✅
- Focus shift: one sentence treats the group as a unit, the next treats it as individuals.
- Pronoun drift: “is” shows up, then “they” appears (or the other way around).
- Nearby plural nouns: “a team of players” nudges writers toward “are,” even though the head noun is still team.
- Mixed editing habits: a paragraph blends different traditions, so the pattern looks inconsistent.
A clean signal: if you write “the staff are…,” phrases like “their work” and “they” usually follow smoothly. If you write “the staff is…,” “its” and “it” keep the same logic.
Pronunciation and Contractions
In speech, contractions can hide the verb choice. “The team is” often becomes “the team’s,” and that sound can be mistaken for the plural noun “teams” in fast conversation.
- ✅ “The team is ready” → spoken like “the team’s ready.”
- ✅ “The staff are arriving” keeps the plural feel because “are” stays audible.
- ❌ Writing that follows the sound instead of the meaning can create odd agreement on the page.
A quick reality check is pronouns. If “they” feels natural, are usually fits the intended meaning; if “it” feels natural, is often matches the same idea.
Word Parts and Origins
Word origins don’t decide is vs are, but they can explain why these nouns naturally point to groups. That “group meaning” is exactly what makes agreement flexible.
Team
Team has a long history connected to the idea of a set or group rather than a single individual, which helps explain why writers sometimes treat it as a unit and sometimes as the people inside it.Source-5✅
Practical takeaway: the shape of the noun stays singular (“team”), but the idea can be singular or plural. That’s why agreement follows meaning, not spelling.
Family
Family traces back to a sense of household, which naturally bundles multiple people into one label—another reason it behaves like a collective noun in grammar discussions.Source-6✅
Staff works the same way in grammar: it can point to the group or the individuals. The noun doesn’t change, so the verb choice carries the meaning.
Related Forms and Nearby Words
Sometimes the easiest clue is the nearby wording. A small change can shift the meaning from one unit to many people without changing the topic.
Forms That Lean Singular
- the team (as one unit)
- the staff (as one group)
- my family (as a household)
- its plan, it decided
Forms That Lean Plural
- team members
- staff members
- family members
- their ideas, they agreed
One more pattern to notice: “a team of players” is still headed by team, but writers often choose are when the sentence strongly spotlights individual actions.
Common Mix-Ups Table
This isn’t about spelling. It’s about agreement. The mix-ups below usually come from switching meaning mid-sentence.
| What You See | What It Signals | Cleaner Match |
|---|---|---|
| ❌ The team are ready, and it is excited. | Mixed unit + members in one sentence | ✅ The team is ready, and it is excited. |
| ❌ The staff is meeting, and they are sharing ideas. | Pronoun drift | ✅ The staff are meeting, and they are sharing ideas. |
| ✅ The family is celebrating its anniversary. | One unit | ✅ Stays consistent: is + its |
| ✅ The family are arriving at different times. | Individuals | ✅ Stays consistent: are + their/they |
| ✅ A team of players is practicing today. | Head noun treated as a unit | ✅ Works well when the focus is the group. |
If you see two different logics in one line, that’s the real “wrong” moment. It’s not the dialect choice; it’s the internal mismatch.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Can “team” take both “is” and “are”?
Yes. Team can pair with is for a single unit, or are when the meaning points to individual members.
Is “the team are” automatically incorrect?
No. It’s widely used in contexts where a member-focused meaning is intended, and it can also appear in some editing traditions; the key is that pronouns stay consistent.
Is “staff” singular or plural?
It can act as either. Staff often behaves like a collective: is for the group as one unit, are when the sentence spotlights individual people.
Does “family” prefer “is” or “are”?
Both appear. Family tends to take is when treated as one household, and are when the meaning is clearly about separate members.
Do pronouns have to match “is” vs “are”?
They should match the same logic. Is usually aligns with it/its, while are usually aligns with they/their.
What about “a team of players are”?
It depends on meaning. The head noun is still team, so is is a common match for the unit; are shows up when the sentence strongly emphasizes individual actions.
Source note: these agreement patterns are described in major grammar references and institutional writing guides, and the main difference is meaning focus plus consistency in a sentence.Source-7✅