1

Why is "are" used for the clubs and not "is" for singular? Ex. Juventus ARE very good, Real madrid ARE nice

Why can't say "is" because that is singular?

Improve this question
7
  • 1
    It makes a lot of difference whether you're a BrE or AmE speaker. Because Americans in general aren't very interested in Italian football teams, we can assume that most if not all of the 8 written instances of Juventus are playing came from Brits (or at least, Europeans who mainly learned British English). Not exactly a large enough sample size to be definitive, but it's worth noting there are only 2 instances of Juventus is playing.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 21, 2018 at 12:36
  • @FumbleFingers Ey, Real Madrid is an Spanish team! Are (US)Americans interested in our teams? ;-P (I have used "is" because if both are correct I prefer "is")
    – RubioRic
    Commented May 21, 2018 at 12:59
  • 1
    @FumbleFingers I guess you are not in the States and don't watch European football teams on American TV. But I do. And I also hear Ray Hudson all the time. He pluralizes the verb but the US commentators use the singular. The interest in football (soccer) is growing and growing. And in the States, all the Spanish speakers watch it. But even my neighbor, who is a real Yank, and an American football nut even comments on big European games.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 21, 2018 at 13:12
  • @Lambie: I didn't mean to imply no Americans would follow European football (or indeed that no Americans ever use plural verb forms with football teams / companies / families / etc.). But broadly speaking it's a US/UK usage split, in that Brits do this far more often. And when I find more hits for Manchester City are playing than for Manchester City is playing in Google Books, I think it's safe to assume that's because mostly they're from BrE sources. And I did find half-a-dozen hits for where Chicago is playing, but none at all for where Chicago are playing.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 21, 2018 at 13:28
  • 1
    That duplicate target isn't really sufficient to answer the question on its own because it doesn't mention the AmE / BrE distinction. I'm sure we have a better duplicate target somewhere, but I haven't found it yet.
    – user230
    Commented May 30, 2018 at 17:23

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
0

In British English, the plural form(are) is used for a club because the club is made up of individuals, but in American English, the form used is based on the clubs name: ex. "the Yankees are good", "The patriots are annoying", "the cubs were world series winners in 2016", but "Real Madrid is Nice"(sorry, there aren't a lot of singular team names).

Improve this answer
2
  • 1
    In American English, it's usually based on whether the name is singular or plural. Sports teams are usually plural (The Yankees are...) but not always (FC Dallas is...). With entertainment acts it varies much more often (The Beatles were...; Led Zeppelin Was...). That's all common usage, though, not necessarily correct.
    – ScottM
    Commented Jun 29, 2018 at 15:39
  • I changed it. I should've known better though because I'm an American myself. Think I was just remembering it wrong or not thinking too well.
    – JustinCB
    Commented Jul 9, 2018 at 13:26