Refer To Organizations In The Singular

Organizations are single entities and should always be referred to in the singular. However, as organizations consist of a plurality of persons, writers are very often tempted to refer to them in the plural. For example, one is very likely to encounter a sentence like this:

Incorrect: "Microsoft are one of the world's biggest companies."

The correct form is:

Correct: "Microsoft is one of the world's biggest companies."

One will also see sentences like this that mix up the singular and plural:

Incorrect: "Microsoft is a big company and are planning to grow even bigger."

The correct form is:

Incorrect: "Microsoft is a big company and is planning to grow even bigger."

To see that referring to organizations in the plural is incorrect, consider the following sentences which sound wrong as well as actually being wrong:

Incorrect: "The roman empire are growing fast."
Incorrect: "The state of South Australia are in Australia."

It's tempting to refer to organizations in the plural because organizations consist of lots of people. But it's always easy to rewrite sentences to avoid the problem:

Incorrect: "Let's send this off to COMPAQ and see what they think."
Correct: "Let's send this off to the people at COMPAQ and see what they think."

Ross Williams (ross@ross.net)
3 February 2002