Learn English – ‘Team’ doesn’t or don’t’

meaning-in-contextsingular-vs-plural

I have found that in BrE, 'the team' is either singular or plural, while in AmE, it is always singular from here: Team as singular or plural

I read the following line in the article:

Given the right conditions, and the team playing to its potential, Kohli will be disappointed if his team don’t win the series.

Now, my question is: Should we put 'doesn't' in place of 'don't' as looking at the context, here 'team' looks singular? Why?

Best Answer

Subject verb agreement.

'Team' is a collective noun and the beauty of this noun is it can have both -singular and plural verb!

Then, how to decide? Well, it depends on the context.

If you want the noun to act as one unit, use a singular verb.

The team is on the ground.

In other case, if you want to be specific about individuality, use a plural verb. Say--

The team are arguing among themselves over a trivial dispute

So, in the given sentence, the author probably focuses on the individuality.

The context is cricket, and the sport is much dependent on individual's performance that in turn strengthens the team. You often hear either bowlers or batsmen don't perform well and the team loses.

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