# In other languages does "the United States" take a singular or plural verb? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 5, 2014, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-languages-does-the-united-states-take-a-singular-or-plural-verb/690128 "2014-06-05T16:20:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![hibernicus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hibernicus/32/2802_2.png) [@hibernicus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hibernicus)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-languages-does-the-united-states-take-a-singular-or-plural-verb/690128/21 "2014-06-05T22:06:30Z")
In Irish, the word for the United States is plural: na Stáit Aontaithe. However, there is no distinction between 3rd person singular and 3rd person plural verb forms, so the question of whether the verb is singular or plural is not meaningful. ---
**Author:** ![RadicalPi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/radicalpi/32/9806_2.png) [@RadicalPi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RadicalPi)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2014, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-languages-does-the-united-states-take-a-singular-or-plural-verb/690128/22 "2014-06-05T22:55:57Z")
> [@hibernicus](#): > > In Irish, the word for the United States is plural: na Stáit Aontaithe. However, there is no distinction between 3rd person singular and 3rd person plural verb forms, so the question of whether the verb is singular or plural is not meaningful. If I’m not mistaken, aren’t they different in the imperfect and conditional? ---
**Author:** ![Johanna](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johanna/32/8318_2.png) [@Johanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johanna)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-languages-does-the-united-states-take-a-singular-or-plural-verb/690128/23 "2014-06-06T06:09:29Z")
Just like the Brits have a way of treating collective nouns that are singular in form as plurals (Arsenal “are” a team, Judas Priest “are” a band), we Americans seem to have the opposite disease, treating plurals as singulars. I just heard on the news “The Taliban is…”—to someone who has studied Persian, like me, that sounds odd, because Taliban is a plural noun in Persian. Of course, Persian and Urdu often treat Arabic broken plurals as singulars too, e.g. \*tujjār \*(merchants), _ʻulamāʼ_ (scholars), etc. They’ll say e.g. “he is a _tujjār_” or “he is a _ʻulamāʼ_”—which is just as weird as saying “the Taliban is…” In Arabic, the name for the USA is _al-Wilāyāt al-Muttaḥidah al-Amrīkīyah_ (literally, ‘the American United States’, but never mind about that). The funny thing is that even though the word for ‘States’ is in the feminine _plural_ form, in Arabic grammar, the plurals of most nouns take a feminine \*singular \*agreement, and for that matter, the names of countries are all feminine. The upshot is that _it makes no difference_ in Arabic whether the USA is construed as singular or plural, because grammatically it turns out the same way anyhow, just as in Irish as noted by **hibernicus**. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 8:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-languages-does-the-united-states-take-a-singular-or-plural-verb/690128/24 "2014-06-06T08:22:52Z")
In Hebrew, ארצות הברית,\* Artzot Habrit\* (literally: “Lands of the Alliance”) is singular female. Just like in Arabic - see above post - all countries are feminine, although in Hebrew, single and plural does matter. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 8:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-languages-does-the-united-states-take-a-singular-or-plural-verb/690128/25 "2014-06-06T08:24:19Z")
Norwegian no longer uses singular and plural verb forms. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-languages-does-the-united-states-take-a-singular-or-plural-verb/690128/26 "2014-06-06T09:23:57Z")
It sort of depends on context: “In conclusion, the United States is a land of contrast.” “The United States are 50 very different places,” ~equivalent to “the United States consists (sing.) of 50 very different places.” The verbs in each of course are referencing different things. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2014, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-languages-does-the-united-states-take-a-singular-or-plural-verb/690128/27 "2014-06-06T10:19:25Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > It sort of depends on context: > > “In conclusion, the United States is a land of contrast.” > > “The United States are 50 very different places,” ~equivalent to “the United States consists (sing.) of 50 very different places.” > > The verbs in each of course are referencing different things. Clearly. But to me and most other posters it was pretty clear the OP was asking about how the collective noun situation was handled. IOW whether the your first example sentence is rendered in other languages as equivalent to "In conclusion, the United States is a land of contrast."or “In conclusion, the United States are a land of contrast.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-other-languages-does-the-united-states-take-a-singular-or-plural-verb/690128.md?page=1)