England Are playing Germany

[brionon]

I don't care but just out of interest shouldn't it be England is ?

[joeluke]

MarkRae?

[bigfoot3000]

"Are" or "Is" we're still going to railroad the germans!

COME ON ENGLAND!

[chakka35]

Could be either. If you mean the team as an entity then it's "is". Even you mean the eleven players then it's "are".

[Seadragon]

Yes, as I understand it - 'is' is used for singular and 'are' for plural. Since 'England' refers to the 'English football team' here then I would use 'are' but someone may differ.

[coccinelle]

It's a collective noun as it refers to the English team so as it refers to a few people we can use 'are'. We do the same with the police are making enquiries...

[brionon]

Team is, surel/y singular

[joeluke]

at the end of the day............who chuffin cares?????

[BertiWooster]

Is you is or is you aint my baby

[Quizmonster]

Chakka is correct and either is or are may be used in these circumstances. Weekly in The Times, a ‘Feedback' column responds to readers' complaints. On March 10th 2007, one had written (abbreviated),,,
"I am writing to highlight the increasing incorrect use of collective nouns with plural verbs...'the team are doing this' or ‘England are doing that'..."
The editor responded...
"Actually it isn't incorrect. To quote Gowers: ‘In using collective words or nouns of multitude (department, government, committee and the like...there is no rule; either a singular or a plural verb may be used.'"
The Gowers referred to was Sir Ernest Gowers, the author of The Complete Plain Words first published in 1954. His words are echoed by those of the editor of Fowler's Modern English Usage, who expresses the selfsame thought as, "In British English, collective nouns may be correctly followed by either a singular or a plural verb."
There ARE circumstances where one might feel only one of these feels right, so simply use that one at the time.

[chakka35]

Ho, ho, Quizmonster, as a regular fan of (and occasional contributor to) Sally Baker's "Feedback" I must look up that issue and discover who you are!

[chakka35]

Sorry, I had misread "one had written" as "I had written". Triumph over...

[Quizmonster]

Aha, you can't catch me that easily, Chakka!

[flobadob]

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