Thread: Opinions Please

While watching the World Cup matches the British announcer repeatedly referred to team and country in the plural sense.

Examples: Here come Brazil onto the field; Argentina have played well in this game. The German team have scored again; etc.; as if country and team are plural.

I've noticed this recently in areas other than just football and it seems to be used, generally, in UK English.

In my world, a country is a single entity, as is a team.

What's your view?

Originally Posted by CaliforniaMan

It would puzzle me a little to hear someone refer to a team in the plural (i.e. "The German team have scored again")

It struck me as strange too but these announcers are educated people. Honest! It's not my imagination. I've heard this on other occasions and not just in referring to a team.
What do you think of it in reference to a country?

I'm sure they are amayo but is it grammatically correct? If they want to unify them why not say here come the Brazilians instead of here come Brazil. Why not say the Argentines have played well instead of their team have played well?

Hasn't anybody else ever noticed this? Am I imagining all this?

Originally Posted by CaliforniaMan

I don't think it is grammatically correct. I have not paid too much attention to English broadcasts of the games. I actually watch the games in Spanish. I can feel the announcer is actually living the game

This is so prevalent that I googled it. Much to my surprise there are a number of responses dealing with this subject and apparently it is acceptable to use a collective noun in the singular or plural, depending on the sense of the sentence. (I just did it myself ..."are a number")

https://www.google.com/#q=use+of+tea...e+plural+sense

Note: Even our discussion is among the Google responses!!