Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.

Q: Possible Duplicate: Is a company always plural, or are small companies singular? When I'm referring to a group of multiple things, should it be considered singular or plural for the purposes of applying a verb to it? For example, which is correct in the examples below? A sentence is a group of words that is followed by a period. A sentence is a group of words that are followed by a period. The group of people constitutes a jury. The group of people constitute a jury. A group of crows is called a 'murder'. A group of crows are called a 'murder'. My instinct is that it depends on whether the verb is referncing the group itself or the members of the group directly, but is that right?.

A: According to the OALD, group can actually serve as either a plural or singular noun. The category they give is 'countable + singular or plural verb'. So, an example of correct use is: A group of us is/are going to the theatre this evening. For any of your examples, both is and are can be used. I think the difference between them is as you say: use is when you are referring to the group, and use are when you are referring to the members of a given group. This page on when to use 'group' as plural from Washington State University backs this up, saying: When the group is being considered as a whole, it can be treated as a single entity: 'the group was ready to go on stage.' But when the individuality of its members is being emphasized, 'group' is plural: 'the group were in disagreement about where to go for dinner.' To analyze your given examples, here are some notes: A sentence is a group of words that is followed by a period. Use this form if you're talking about the group itself. That is, a sentence is a group of words followed by a period. A sentence is a group of words that are followed by a period. This implies that 'This. Is. A. Sentence' is a sentence. The group of people constitutes a jury. The group of people constitute a jury. This would be more correct, since you are describing the nature of the group. A group of crows is called a 'murder'. This would be correct, since you're again describing an entire group. A group of crows are called a 'murder'.
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Q: I want to know what the longest palindrome word is.

A: Detartrated. Edit: surprise, surprise, Wikipedia has more: The longest palindromic word in the Oxford English Dictionary is the onomatopoeic tattarrattat, coined by James Joyce in Ulysses (1922) for a knock on the door. The Guinness Book of Records gives the title to detartrated, the preterit and past participle of detartrate, a chemical term meaning to remove tartrates. Rotavator, a trademarked name for an agricultural machine, is often listed in dictionaries. The term redivider is used by some writers but appears to be an invented or derived termonly redivide and redivision appear in the Shorter Oxford Dictionary. Malayalam, an Indian language, is of equal length. So let's see: tattarrattat (onomatopoeic) detartrated Rotavator (trademark) redivider (disputed) Malayalam
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Q: If I were to try to achieve something you could say I 'had a go'. If I tried it multiple times, how would I write that down? I had many goes or I had many go's or I had many gos.

A:
The dictionaries I've checked seem to be unanimous that the plural of the noun 'go' is 'goes'. I didn't see one list its plural as 'gos'. However, I didn't check all dictionaries. American Heritage Dictionary: n. pl. goes Collins Dictionary: n, pl goes Merriam-Webster Dictionary: plural goes Cambridge Dictionary: plural goes Random House Unabridged Dictionary (dictionary.com): plural goes Google NGram Viewer does not show any results for 'two gos at' or 'two gos at', but does when written as 'goes'. A Google search shows the following results: 'two gos at' = 453 results. 'two goes at' = 19,500 results. 'three gos at' = 252 results. 'three goes at' = 20,200 results. Note that both Google search and Ngram Viewer may show false positives, as Google search, as far as I know, doesn't take punctuation into account when giving search results, ie., full stops, commas. But I think it's safe to assume the consensus is that the plural of go (attempt or try) is 'goes'. I think this is a good question, as somewhere in my head I have an instinct to write it 'gos'. However the answer is gotten easily by checking some dictionaries. Also, if you wrote 'I had three gos at it before giving up', I have a feeling the typical reader probably wouldn't even be surprised by it or notice it particularly as wrong. This is just my opinion. I have this feeling because the '-os'/'-oes' plural ending rules are wildly inconsistent. Potatoes, tomatoes and heroes are correct. But 'photos' and 'burritos' are correct. However most dictionaries seem to list either '-os' or '-oes' ending as acceptable in 'ghetto' and 'mosquito'. Both 'mosquito' and 'burrito' most likely come from Spanish, yet most dictionaries say only 'mosquito' can have plural ending either '-os' or 'oes', whereas they're consistent in listing '-os' for burrito plural. Same goes for 'canto', 'manifesto' and 'grotto'. These words most likely come from Italian, yet the plural of 'canto' is 'cantos', whereas the dictionaries say the plural of 'grotto' or 'manifesto' can end in either '-os' or '-oes'. Addendum As some people have claimed that the rules for -os or -oes plural endings are quite consistent (and I happen to disagree), I've included more examples to show just how unpredictable this can get. The claim generally is basically that borrowed words or imported words from other languages have -os as their endings and most everything else has -oes. The more specific claim is this rule applies for words from Romance languages specifically. embargo (Spanish): Dictionaries show only -oes plural. NGrams show -oes much more common. tornado (Spanish): Dictionaries show either -os or -oes plural. NGrams shows -oes much more common. desperado (Spanish): Dictionaries show either -os or -oes plural. NGrams shows -oes more common. cargo (Spanish) plural possibly as the pants: Dictionaries show either -os or -oes. NGrams shows -oes more common. mango (Portuguese): Dictionaries show both -os or -oes. NGrams shows -oes much more common. domino (uncertain exactly which language, but a Romance one, or maybe directly from Latin): Dictionaries give either -os or -oes. NGrams shows -oes much more common. volcano (Italian): Dictionaries give either -os or -oes. NGrams shows -oes much more common. motto (Italian): Dictionaries give either -os or -oes. NGrams shows -oes to be more common. Words taken directly from Latin many times have -oes plural ending, but not always: veto has plural vetoes torpedo has plural torpedoes However memento overwhelmingly has plural mementos. And embryo is always embryos. Echo, directly from Greek, has plural 'echoes'. hello (native English): Nearly always 'hellos'. no (native English): Much more common as 'nos', ie., 'yeses and nos'. do (native English): Dictionaries give plural as either 'dos' or 'do's'. The results for searches of these terms would be confounding to say the least. weirdo (native English): some dictionaries show both -os or -oes. NGrams shows -os is much more popular Unknown origin: hobo: Dictionaries give either -os or -oes. NGrams show roughly same frequency. gizmo: = Dictionaries only give -os, 'gizmoes' doesn't show anything in NGrams. gazebo: Dictionaries show both -os or -oes. NGrams shows -os more common. So I don't know about anyone else, but I personally need help, in many ways.
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