Auxiliary Verbs

[Laimeai2006]

Hi Alan,
Auxiliary Verbs: Is and Are

a. Susie 's family is going to New Zealand.

b. Susie's family are going to New Zealand

Which auxiliary verb used in the sentence above is correct?

If the answer is sentence (a),using the auxiliary verb 'is', please give an explanation.

Thank you.

Regards,
Lee

[Alan]

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Hi Lee,

This is a question which is often asked and I can only give my opinion. Technically 'family' is a singular noun and technically would be followed by 'is'. It depends whether you consider 'family' to be one unit or whether you regard 'family' more as a group of individuals and in that case you would use 'are'. The difference really comes down to whether you know the family as individuals in which instance it would be 'are' or whether they are simply a single entity -someone else's family and you don't know them as individuals.

Alan
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[Esl_Expert]

In American English, the word "family" is normally treated as grammatically singular.

Just another one of those little AmE vs BE differences again, I guess. :wink:
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