English language II.: is | are

is | are

Another thing that confuses me is the use of when to use is (singular) and are (plural).

In a story from LSF I encountered the sentence ‘The staff are assembled’.

This throws me back to the school bench: When I wrote ‘the informations’ and earned a fat red line below and the remark there in only information in English, it doesn’t exist in plural.

In German we got ‘Information’ (singular) and ‘Informationen’ (plural).

Since staff is singular (an entity of people) shouldn’t it be ‘The staff is assembled’ or do people take precedence over staff?

Okay, I'll try.

The general rule is collected noun is treated as a single item, but number them and they become plural.
Example:
A herd of deer is - because there is a single herd.
Three deer are - because there are three deer.
A mob is - because it is a single mob.
Ten men gathered together are - because there is more than one man involved.

Yes, the sentence could read "the staff is -", but English is an elastic language. One that can include "the staff are -".

If I write the following, would it be both be correct?

The engineering staff is assembled.

The engineering (staff) and (the) marketing staff are assembled.


If the LSF author meant for example the science and arts staff in the story I read, would that make the sentence be without fault?

@Goodgulf
mob is a bad example since it could be 1 person as well.
A German computer games magazine badly tried to explain mob in online RPGs as monsters. In reality the mob in online RPGs means 'mobile object' which means a mob might be a single object.
That is picking peas like in Cinderella. ;)

My daughter (who studied English Language and literature) and I have just discussed this for over an hour, considering ideas about crews and orchestras, flocks and herds.

Goodgulf is right about the elasticity of English, and
we have two insights to offer:

Firstly sometimes people use technically incorrect grammar because it sounds better, and the listeners,(apart from grammar pedants) are happy with it. We thought that the word 'staff' which has a long vowel sound feels better if it's considered to be plural thus taking 'are'. Whilst 'the staff is assembled' is also correct, due to elasticity the former sounds better.

Secondly there's a subtle difference in how the noun is used depending on what the speaker wants to imply about the group in question.
If I tell the boss that "The staff is assembled for your address" then I'm treating the collective as a single unit and not as a group of individuals, therefore I am implying something about these people, they are less personal. Saying "the staff are assembled" means there is no option but to confront the idea that whilst a collective it's made up of individuals who will have opinions about what the boss is about to say.

This may be a load of tosh of course.

That use of Mob is jargon, applying only to a concept in video games. Using jargon can be hazardous, at least if you don't explain it. It's like talking about pulling a Leeroy Jenkins - no one who doesn't know about Leeroy Jenkins would understand it.

A Leeroy Jenkins? Everyone else is planning how to do something, but Leeroy Jenkins just charges in, has no plan, and turns the situation FUBAR.

Actually, military jargon makes a better example:
Q) What's the sitrep on the FNG?
A) It's FUBAR. FNG is now a POW at the Hanoi Hilton. It's Bravo-Zulu to the guys who got away.

Sitrep = situation report
FNG = "Figging" New Guy (well, usually it's a different F word)
FUBAR = "Frigged" Up Beyond All Recognition (usually not frig)
POW = Prisoner of War.
Hanoi Hilton = a certain POW camp.
Bravo-Zulu = good job.

@ Goodgulf

It wasn't meant as critic but mob always makes me remember that computer game magazine article. It was clearly by someone who didn't know about what he was talking trying to fit his explanation to what was commonly accepted, not reality.

The dictionary says [GER] Mob (no plural) [ENG] ragtag, rubble, rout [ENG American] Mob (Mafia)

@ ALL

Why am I looking for rules to apply?

I am German, and I try to fulfill the German stereotype: We need rules to exist.

Our German English teachers in 1980 held the Oxford conscience dictionary up and told us this is your English language bible. Anything not in there is wrong.
In Germany you got the Duden, the German language bible.

I fear that your teacher may have been giving too much kudos to the dictionary, which only seeks to record and define those words which are already in place. Every year they produce a list of the new words and the most popular new word of the year.
The Oxford English Dictionary (first edition) took decades to produce, and the second edition is in 20 huge volumes and occupies many yards of shelf space. The third edition which is still in preparation will be digital only.

There are a number of cut down versions like the Oxford Concise Dictionary which is a single large volume. I have one and it's just about small enough to be useful. Sorry for the lecture, but my daughter works for the publisher of said dictionary so it is a matter of interest.

The Oxford Conscience Dictionary, however, sounds like it might have been produced by the Oxford Movement in the late Victorian period. These were a group of Anglo Catholic intellectuals within the Anglican church, and published a lot of stuff.

@opb, I think Moody might have meant Oxford Concise Dictionary?

My two cents worth,
A couple of things, in American English , it is usual to treat collective nouns as singular. But in British English, it is common to treat then as plurals.

In addition, on both sides of the Atlantic, it can be correct to use the plural if what is being describes is the actions of the members of the group. So "the staff were waiting around for the boss to start the meeting". But "the staff is well paid in this organisation".

I did know that the teacher was waving the Concise, I assumed that 'conscience dictionary' was an autocorrect issue which created the opportunity for a word play. Maybe it wasn't funny enough.

@Moody

As a German, you may need rules to follow, but asanAmerican I need rules to break.