Our school’s band is called the Marching Knights—is it a singular or plural noun?
Note: This post relates to content in the eighth edition of the MLA Handbook. For up-to-date guidance, see the ninth edition of the MLA Handbook.
Many collective nouns can be either singular or plural, depending on how they are used. As Claire Kehrwald Cook writes, “[I]f the collective noun denotes a unit, make it singular; if it refers to the individuals the group comprises, make it plural” (84). So you could say, “The Marching Knights is the best school band in Orlando, hands down,” or “The Marching Knights run for cover whenever there is a downpour.”
Work Cited
Cook, Claire Kehrwald. Line by Line: How to Edit Your Own Writing. Houghton Mifflin, 1985.