Question

Pick out the collective noun(s) from the following sentence.
The troupe of singers was ready for the programme.
A. Troupe, Programme
B. Singers
C. Programme
D. Troupe

Answer 1

Hint:The type of words that we use to name a thing, person, place or anything are known as nouns. They can be of different types depending on what is being named. Collective nouns are used to refer to a collection of nouns. For example, in order to describe a group of lions, we write a ‘pride’ of lions. Here the term ‘pride’ does not refer to any vanity that the lion or its group is showing but it shows simply a group or collection of lions. Like that, we use ‘herd’ of cattle, ‘school’ of fish and so on.

Complete answer:
1. We have already discussed what a collective noun is and their usages with the help of a few examples. Now, we will see the sentence as provided in the question above.
2. In this sentence, we can find that the nouns are ‘troupe’, ‘singers’ and ‘programme’.
3. The word ‘troupe’ is a collective noun but the word ‘programme’ is a common noun. We can understand that the word ‘troupe’ is used to show the collection of singers who are going to perform in the programme.
3. The word ‘singers’ refers to people who sing professionally. It is also a common noun as you can note that the plural form of ‘singer’ is used here. But in case of collective nouns, the plural is not used. Because, by using the preposition ‘of’ in between these two words, ‘troupe’ and ‘singers’, we can create a bond or relation. So, option B is also incorrect here.
4. We have already mentioned that the word ‘programme’ is a common noun that refers to an happening or arrangement of performance where the singers are going to perform their skills. So, the third option is also not correct.
5. As in option D, it is depicted ‘troupe’ word only, so we can say that option D is correct here. Because, the only collective noun in the entire sentence is ‘troupe’.

Hence the correct answer is option ‘D’.

Note:As we may know that there are other types of nouns as we use in English Language. The name of a person, place, thing is a proper noun. Thus, we can say that ‘Delhi’ is the proper noun which is the name of a city. The proper noun is always set with an initial capital letter even in between of a sentence. The word ‘city’ is the common noun. This common noun depicts a class, group or else. If we will take our question sentence here: the words ‘singers’ and ‘programme’ are common nouns. If you try to find out more specifically about the word ‘singers’, you may find his or her name, which becomes a proper noun. And the word ‘programme’ also can give more information of its own specific type, as ‘local’ programme or ‘annual’ programme. These words are adjectives to the noun ‘programme’.