[Company name] is/are aware that its/their...?

18:21 Mar 5, 2012 

.

00:30 Mar 3, 2012 

...Modern English Usage, when referring to collective nouns.
These words... such as committee, government, group, which are singular in form but often plural in sense. In BrE, the practice is well established of construing such words either with a singular werb (when unity or collectivity is being emphasized) or with a plural werb (when individuality or corporateness is being emphasized). Examples: (singular) Each succeeding generation of gallery visitors finds it easier to recognise Cubist subject-matter | A group of four young men, in denim overalls, was standing close to him, | (plural) The jury retired at five minutes past five o'clock to consider their verdict | Let us hope that the Ministry of Defence are on your side this time.
It is important to avoid a mixed style, as in: The government has decided to postpone their decision..
Here we are talking about (the) Imolax (Company), so take your pick.

17:34 Mar 2, 2012 

I don't have much to add, except that Swan's "Practical English Usage" makes it quite clear that either singular or plural can be used nowadays. Neither is wrong and they have the same register etc - you just need to be consistent. I don't know about AE though.

17:14 Mar 2, 2012 

Whether the plural is grammatically wrong in British English is debatable; I would say that British grammar allows it. But that is secondary here. I think the message for you is clear, Jan. The plural is wrong in American English. It is used in British English quite often, but so is the singular, and some British speakers here feel that the plural shouldn't be used at all. Therefore the safe option, undoubtedly, is to use the singular. In any case, as I have said in agreeing with Demi's answer, I would say that in the case you have given us the singular would be preferable in British English.

In some other cases, the plural may arguably be allowable in British English, but I don't think you will ever be wrong to use the singular after a company name, so that would seem to be the sensible default option.

16:47 Mar 2, 2012 

Grammar wise, I think you are right. Still, if you google it, you come across a large number of examples where a plural form is used... Target audience: potential customers who visit the website of a Microsoft certified partner...

16:37 Mar 2, 2012 

This whole discussion brings up some interesting points, but seems to have diverged somewhat from the asker's question as to the grammatical point. Being old-fashioned I simply cannot think of a company as anything other than impersonal and singular, so any use of "are" or "who" tends to grate on the ears. Perhaps it's rather more important than I imagined to know what the target audience/reader is?

16:02 Mar 2, 2012 

Now that is an interesting point. "Who", rather than "which", is very commonly used. I have just browsed the results from two parallel searches, in US and UK sites respectively, for "the company who". The US ones always seem to use a singular verb ("the company who is") whereas the UK ones are a mixture of singular and plural ("the company who are"). This suggests that number agreement and personification are separate issues.

15:47 Mar 2, 2012 

That is probably why, in addition to "people that...", I also often hear "companies WHO..." .

15:19 Mar 2, 2012 

However, what may well be a trendy issue is an increased tendency to regard companies (or for companies to regard themselves) as plural groups of people rather than singular entities, perhaps for the reason Paul mentions: it makes them sound more personal, less "cold and heartless". I think that's a good point.

15:11 Mar 2, 2012 

I don't think the use of the plural after the name of a company in British English is a trendy issue; I think it's common practice and has been for a long time. To me, the point is that the verb form depends on whether the speaker thinks of the subject as singular or plural. A company is sometimes thought of as singular (an entity) and sometimes as plural (a group of people). In this sense, British English treats company names as collective nouns, and it is generally accepted that in BE collective nouns can take either singular or plural forms depending on the context.

Wikipedia is very good on this, I think:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_and_British_English_di...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collective_noun#Metonymic_mergi...

Let me emphasise that this does not mean company names will always be treated as plural in British English. In Jan's example, my instinctive reaction is to use the singular, because on balance I think it refers to the company as an entity.

13:56 Mar 2, 2012 

It has definitely been a trend to use plural forms after the names of companies, as well as sports teams and other entities consisting of more than one person in British English. I do question, however, whether that is proper English or just a bad habit that is catching on. I have had on occasion instructions from clients that they want to use the plural since they avoid using the cold and heartless "it" as a pronoun referring to the company and that "they" sounds more personable. Whether that was an admission that they were sacrificing good grammar for stylistic purposes I am not sure.

13:54 Mar 2, 2012 

Thank you for all your comments and for the link which was also very helpful!! Have a nice weekend!
Jan

ps: advise->advice :p (weekend is near...)

13:46 Mar 2, 2012 

Absolutely, very difficult at times.
PS. Could you call me Alison please, Alice brings back too many memories of "wonderland" view my maiden name!!!!

13:30 Mar 2, 2012 

although this can take some getting used to if the name of the company itself is plural, e.g. "British Airways is...".

13:23 Mar 2, 2012 

google and/or grammar texts re "collective nouns" may also be helpful.

13:20 Mar 2, 2012 

I was taught that it is singular on the whole. "The Company" being considered a singular entity as would be "the management". However the minute you refer to the management as "they", then it's in the plural. It's possibly very different in US EN. To some extent it also depends on the formality of the document. Hope this advice is useful.