Choose the correct sentence from the followings.

In the sentence, “The rich are not always happy…,” the word “rich” is a plural noun, requiring “are.” The rich are, the poor are, the children are, the elderly are, the cattle are, the oxen are, and the police are. Sometimes one fish is, sometimes many fish are. The Senate is, the legislature is, the governing board is, the officer corps is, the faculty is (at least in the US). The family is even though the children are.

Having said all that, I’ll add that I realize I’m not providing much practical help.

No one has authorized me to say that these are official rules, but here are some thoughts:

> First: Please don’t fall into the trap of assuming that all plurals in English are formed by adding “s.” The plural of man is men; the plural of woman is women; and on it goes with some of the examples that I gave above, like children and oxen, all plural nouns.

> Second: I believe the experts may tell us that plural nouns and collective nouns are two different things. Senate, legislature, faculty are collective nouns. Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City are collective nouns as well as proper nouns. What you want to notice about collective nouns is that the British like to use the plural form of verbs with collective nouns, whereas Americans use the singular form: The Boston baseball team “is” proud of its history; Tottenham Hotspur “are” proud of their history. You also want to notice that both Americans and the British use the plural form of verbs with plural nouns like children, cattle and police. In other words, both in the US and in the UK, children are, cattle are, police are. Got it? The Boston team is, Tottenham are, the police are