FAMILY is or FAMILY are.......

My family is a wonderful family.

My family are very close to one another.


In the first sentence, the noun family is used as a single unit of people. This sentence is correct if you think of the family as ‘a single body’.

But in the second sentence, family is treated as plural as the speaker wants to emphasize that every member in their family is close to one another.

The word 'family' is an example of a 'collective noun'. Some other words in this category are 'group', 'committee', 'jury', 'team', 'public', 'army', 'congress', etc.

So, the question that whether a collective noun should be treated as singular or plural solely depends upon up on what you want to say i.e. if you think of the collective noun as a unit, treat it as singular, as in

'My family is settled in USA’, ‘The team is in its best form these days’, ‘The jury needs to be impartial in its verdict’, ‘The committee was able to take a firm step against the culprit’ etc.

But if you take a collective noun as individuals acting separately, treat it as plural, as in

‘My family are very co-operative with one another’, (emphasis on each member of the family)

‘Strangely, the team are wearing jerseys of different colours’ (emphasis on each player in the team)

‘The jury have unanimously agreed to the new proposal of the government’ (emphasizing each judge in the jury)

The committee meet once a month’ (emphasizing that each member is present once in a month without fail)

This rule is often strictly followed in British English though this confusing grammatical rule is slowly becoming flexible in modern English.

In American English, collective nouns are almost always treated as singular for example, if you type ‘The jury are considering the verdict’ in MS Word, the software will underline the words ‘jury are’ and prompt you to use ‘jury is’. The reason, as you probably know, is that MS Word accepts only American English grammar and spelling unless you have changed its settings to British English.

Have you ever gone 'yellular' on your cellular phone?

If you look up in any standard dictionary, you will not find the word ‘yellular’. It is an interesting and useful  slang term which is frequently heard these days. The term is a blend of two familiar words: ‘yell’ (= to shout in a loud, sharp way) and ‘cellular’ (related to cell phone).

Mobile phones obviously help us to stay in touch with our dear and near ones. However, the incessant technical faults sometimes make it difficult for the listener to hear what the person on the other end says. It can be due to poor network coverage or technical glitch of the user’s cell phone among many other reasons.

What happens normally on such occasions? The speaker yells at the top of their voice, thinking that yelling will troubleshoot the fault and make the connection better! This act of shouting, which is often a nuisance for others, is called ‘yellular’. When you see someone does it, you can say, ‘he’s going yellular’.

More examples:

1) My Bengali roommate goes yellular whenever she talks to her parents who live in some remote village in West Bengal.

2) Tom: “Hey, why are you screaming through your cell phone?”

Jerry: “It’s a terrible line, buddy. So I’m trying my yellular technology!”

3) After disturbing our sleep by snoring aloud the whole night, he went yellular at 5 o’ clock in the morning.

4) Stop going yellular and try to call her back after some time.

Difference between UNINTERESTED & DISINTERESTED!

English is undoubtedly the craziest language in the world! Perhaps most of you know that DISAPPEAR is the opposite of APPEAR, DISAGREE is the opposite of AGREE, DISHONEST is the opposite of HONEST and DISADVANTAGE is the opposite of ADVANTAGE.

Such words prove that the prefix 'DIS' is used to form the antonym (opposite word) of many words. Now the question is: what is the opposite of INTERESTED? Is it DISINTERESTED or UNINTERESTED?

'DISINTERESTED' and 'UNINTERESTED' are two words which have given rise to a lot of heated arguments among grammarians and common users of English around the world. Even the native users of English -knowingly or unknowingly- misuse these words.

According to strict and refined grammar, DISINTERESTED should not be used to mean 'not interested'. The reason is DISINTERESTED is a totally different word, meaning 'IMPARTIAL', 'OBJECTIVE' or 'UNBIASED'
Examples:
(1)"Only Mrs Alice can give you some DISINTERESTED advice on this matter". (meaning 'impartial')
(2)"Ask him for a DISINTERESTED account of the incident" (meaning 'impartial')
(3)"It is better to be DISINTERESTED when it comes to political views" etc. (meaning 'impartial')

On the other hand, 'UNINTERESTED' stands for 'NOT INTERESTED' (i.e. the accurate opposite of INTERESTED).
Examples:
(1) "Jane is totally UNINTERESTED in sports and games".
(2) "She seemed cold and UNINTERESTED in our offer".

Like wise,
"The food was dull and UNINTERESTING". (opposite: INTERESTING)
"The number of UNINTERESTING bollywood movies is increasing" etc. However, UNINTERESTING is not a very common usage. Instead 'BORING' or 'Dull' is widely preferred.

______________________________________________________________________________
NB Though UNINTERESTED is the exact opposite of INTERESTED, the other one DISINTERESTED is widely used by the speakers. Even the Oxford Dictionary says that DISINTERESTED can be used as the opposite of INTERESTED, but only in informal English (i.e. ordinary conversations). However, it is advisable to avoid using it to mean NOT INTERESTED in standard written English.

Good Night
Jack (Nova English Campus)

ONE OF MY FRIEND or FRIENDS

Hi Buddies!
Today I'm posting one of the most common grammatical mistakes that many learners of English make.

Quite often, I've heard and read many people use such sentences as 'Sam is one of my best friend.' , 'India is one of most populated country', 'Maths is one of her favourite subject' etc.

Although these sentences look okay at first sight, they are ungrammatical. As a rule ONE OF must be followed by a PLURAL NOUN. e.g. One of the boys, one of my brothers, one of the problems etc.

Therefore, the wrong sentences in the introductory paragraphs must be rewritten as: (Carefully see the plural subjects after 'one of')

'Sam is one of my best friends.' , India is one of most populated countries', 'Maths is one of her favourite subjects' etc.

The explanation:
In sentence 1, the speaker means to say that they have many best friends, and Sam is one of them.

In sentence 2, the speaker means to say that there are many most populated countries, and India is one of them.

In sentence 3, the speaker means to say that she has many favourite subjects, and Maths is one of them.

                                                                                                                    
Jacob (Nova English Campus)