Collective Nouns in English: How to talk about groups of people and things

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Can I come out?

Okay.

Whew.

Okay, I was just baking some cookies, but the strangest thing happened.

A group of rhinos started chasing me, so now I'm just...

I'm trying to escape, but I want to give you guys this very, very important English lesson

first.

So I'm going to put these down, and we're going to try to do this lesson before the

rhinos come back.

Okay?

Okay, let me...

Let me compose myself.

Hey, everyone.

I'm Alex.

Thanks for clicking, and welcome to this lesson on "Collective Nouns".

So, collective nouns are nouns we use to talk about a group of things, animals, or people.

Of course, it's possible just to say: "A group of", whatever.

For example: "a group of birds" or "a group of kittens", but there are very specific names

that we can give them and we do give them to make it a little more specific, I guess.

Okay?

So, I'm going to give you first some of the most common ones that we use, and then some

that are a little less common.

So, to begin: I had "a batch of cookies" at the start of this lesson.

So, if you are baking and you bake a lot of cookies like I did, you baked a batch of cookies.

Okay?

So you can say: "The first batch is ready."

or "The second batch is in the oven." or "I made three batches of cookies."

All right, next: "a bouquet of flowers".

I think many people probably know this one.

So we just say: "Bouquet".

Very French.

Right? Very French.

So, you can give a bouquet of flowers to your mother on Mother's Day, or to your girlfriend,

boyfriend, husband, wife on the anniversary or Valentine's Day.

Next: If you play poker, you need "a deck of cards".

Right? It's not a group of cards.

It is a group of cards, but we don't say:

"Hey. Do you have a group of cards?"

We say: "Do you have a deck of cards?" Okay?

Next: Birds, if you have many birds, a group of birds together, they are called: "a flock",

"a flock of birds".

Okay?

In the 1980s there was a band called "Flock of Seagulls".

A seagull is that white, annoying bird in public, and they had a famous song, "I Ran",

went like: "And I ran, I ran so far away..."

Doo, doo, doo, doo.

Whatever the lyrics were.

I don't remember them.

So, "a flock of birds", "a flock of seagulls."

Next: For cows and buffalo, you can say: "a herd", "a herd of cattle", "a herd of buffalo".

If you have kittens, baby cats, baby dogs, you say: "a litter of kittens",

"a litter of puppies".

So, for example, in the movie 101 Dalmatians, a famous Disney movie where there are 101

baby puppies, baby Dalmatians, that is a litter of 101 puppies.

Next: "a pack of wolves", or dogs, or hounds.

So, the movie, Frozen, very popular amongst young people, girls-my daughter loves it-there's

a scene where Anna and Kristoff are escaping in the forest and behind them there are a

bunch of wolves, a group of wolves, so you can say: "A pack of wolves is chasing them."

All right?

Next: "a panel of judges" or "a panel of experts".

If you watch TV shows, like The Voice, or American Idol, and you have one, two, three

judges...

Usually you have the nice one, and the annoying one, and the one who's really hard on people.

This is a panel of judges.

Okay?

Or a panel of experts.

"A school of fish", so I'm going to tie this to movies again.

If you have seen Finding Nemo, any time you see that big group of fish travelling together,

that is called "a school of fish".

Yes, just like go to school, the same thing.

A school of fish.

And finally: "a wealth of information".

Now, information is non-count.

You cannot say: "One information, two informations, three informations".

You can say: "A lot of information" or "A wealth of information".

All right.

Let's look at some more on this side.

A little less common, here.

We have: "an army of caterpillars".

It sounds really cool.

Right?

So, caterpillars become butterflies, but if you have a lot of caterpillars together, that's

called "an army of caterpillars".

I don't recommend you Google search "army of caterpillars", especially if you don't

like insects because some of the pictures of the caterpillars all together, and being

furry, and fuzzy, and...

Uhgl.

It's not very nice if you don't like insects.

Also, "army" like: "an army of soldiers".

Or in this case, on my shirt, an army of stormtroopers from Star Wars.

"A caravan of camels", so you think of a caravan and you think of camels from...

Being from Egypt, so a caravan of camels.

"Geese", a geese is a bird.

They're kind of delicious sometimes.

You know?

And you can say: "a gaggle of geese".

So this one is very challenging because it's "gaggle".

"A gaggle of geese".

Good alliteration with "g", "g".

Beavers: "a lodge of beavers".

So, beaver, Canada's national animal.

If you have a group of them, you call them: "a lodge of beavers".

"Murder of crows".

A crow is a big, black bird, and you think of: "Really? A murder of crows?"

Yes, a murder of crows.

And even more surprising and cool, if you have a group of lawyers together-lawyers,

liars, it's a joke, some people say it's the same thing-you can call them:

"a murder of lawyers".

For example: "A murder of lawyers entered the courtroom."

Like, six lawyers entered the courtroom.

A murder of lawyers.

It's a cool name.

And another, this one is one of my favourites, so for owls, a group of owls is called:

"a parliament of owls".

You think of parliament, you think of politics, and you think of an owl as being this very

political-looking bird, maybe.

So: "a parliament of owls".

"Arrows", just like in the TV show, Arrow, he has many arrows in the back.

Right?

He has a quiver, "a quiver of arrows".

So, basically, the thing he has to hold the arrows in the back is called: "a quiver",

"a quiver of arrows".

Two more.

"A pride of lions" or "a pride of peacocks".

A peacock is that bird that has very nice feathers behind it.

Right?

And "a pride of lions", think of the movie, The Lion King, there's a scene in the original

where Rafiki is holding up Simba after he's born, and you hear that music where it goes:

"[Sings]",

whatever, that place where he holds Simba is called "Pride Rock", just like for

the pride of lions.

And finally: A group of rhinos.

A group of rhinos is called: "a crash", "a crash of rhinos".

So, rhinos are very big, very tough, very strong, and you can imagine them, like, just

destroying and crashing into things, and that's why a group of rhinos is called:

"a crash of rhinos".

And for my fellow nerds out there, if you play the game, "Magic: The Gathering", there

actually is a card called "Crash of Rhinos".

It has 8 attack, and 4 defence, and trample ability.

Anyway.

So, if you would like to test your understanding of collective nouns, as always, you can

check out the quiz on www.engvid.com.

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