Group noun

A group noun describes a set or group of people, animals, or things. A group noun, like other nouns, can be singular or plural. Group nouns are also sometimes called "collective nouns". Let's see some examples below:
(1) a flock (of sheep)
(2) a team (of players)

Group nouns (especially general nouns such as group, set) are often followed by OF + PLURAL NOUN. Let's see some examples below:
(1) a bunch of flowers
(2) a class of children
(3) a clump of trees
(4) a committee of scientists
(5) a family of actors
(6) a herd of cattle
(7) a team of climbers

Especially in Great Britain (G.B.), there is often a choice between SINGULAR and PLURAL verb, after a singular human group noun.
It can be either:
(1) The crowd was delighted by the actor's performance.
or:
(2) The crowd were delighted by the actor's performance.

This case relates to Agreement.

Let's see a list of some nouns like this below:
- army
- audience
- band
- class
- club
- committee
- council
- crowd
- department
- family
- government
- group
- nation
- navy
- the police*
- population
- the press*
- race
- team
- union**

* The police and the press (= the group of people who work on newspapers) always follow the or some other definite determiner. They are rather like NAMES. Similar expressions are the working class and the middle class.

**Union in the sense of "trade union".

I hope this article helps. If you have any question, please leave a comment below.