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He bought a Times.
3. When we are referring to a product or work by someone:
The trip had taken two days in the shining new Ford.
Would you recognize a Renoir?
Sometimes a trademark for a product is used for all products of the same kind. For example, many
people would call any vacuum cleaner a "Hoover," though "Hoover" is a trademark of one particular
make.
4. When you want to talk about one branch of a shop or business:
They are making room for the new Woolworth's.
5. When you want to pick out a particular version of something:
This isn't the London I used to know.
6. Proper names are used in the plural to express several or all members of the same family:
The Browns were all present.
Collective nouns are quite special in their reference to number. They express groups of people or
animals. Most collective nouns have both singular and plural forms: family — families. The plural form
always takes a plural verb. But the singular form may take a singular or a plural verb. The singular verb
shows that the noun is acting as a unit, the plural verb shows that the members of the group are acting
separately:
The family is large. The family are all at home.
Most common collective nouns are:
army company majority
audience council minority
band crew orchestra
cast crowd population
choir enemy press (= newspapers)
chorus family school
class firm staff
club gang team
college government union
committee group university
community management
Also: the ВВС, the Congress, England (= the English team), Harrod's, the United Nations, The United
States, the Vatican, the Kremlin.
The following collective nouns also called nouns of multitude are used with the plural verb only:
cattle, clergy, gentry, people, police, poultry, vermin, youth. Reference to individual members of the
group is made thus: twenty people, fifty police or fifty policemen, ten head of cattle.
Many collective nouns exist for groups of animals and birds:
a covey of quail — выводок, стая куропаток;
a flock of birds, chickens, geese, pigeons — стая птиц, цыплят, гусей, голубей;
a herd of cattle, sheep, cows, goats, deer— стадо скота, овец, коров, коз, оленей;
a hive of bees — улей пчел;
a pack of dogs, hyenas, wolves — свора собак, стая гиен, волков;
a pride of lions — стая львов;
a shoal of herring, mackerel — косяк сельдей, скумбрий;
a swarm of ants, bees, flies — рой муравьев, пчел, мух.
Some nouns expressing animals, birds and fish keep the singular form in a collective plural meaning: