# EN: the police - plural collective noun



## Willow_O

Bonjour, 

Je souhaiterais traduire en anglais la phase suivante : 
"La police est en train d'arrêter quelqu'un"

Dois-je dire "the police is arresting someone" ou "the police are arresting someone ? "

Merci d'avance.


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## Gutenberg

Policemen are putting someone under arrest.


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## Moon Palace

You can say 'the police are arresting / chasing...'
'the police' is part of collective nouns which can be used in the plural. we then consider the people that are part of this group. 
I believe you can use a plural with 'the army', 'the labour (force)'.


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## Tim~!

Moon Palace said:


> I believe you can use a plural with 'the army', 'the labour (force)'.


We quite naturally use a plural verb with _the police_, yet seem to prefer singular verbs with _the army_. 

If I were asked to bet on the results, I would feel very confident that most English people would naturally say "The police are coming" yet "The army hasn't yet left Baghdad" and "The labour force is near full capacity".

It's one of those strange things that I've thought about for many years, how strange it is that we naturally use different forms for things that are so similar as the police and the army.

The 'police force', however, would be singular every time.


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## Embokias

I agree entirely with Tim.  I would say

The police are arresting the shoplifter.
The workforce is productive.
The army is invading.
The police force is cracking down on speeders.


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## Moon Palace

Although I have well understood your use of the words 'army' and 'labour force' would mainly be in the singular, the CED confirms the possible use of a plural for both these words. Here and there. The OED also mentions it for labour force.
I guess it all depends on context and the locutor's intentions as often.


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## sound shift

"The police is arresting someone" sounds odd to me. If I heard a non-native speaker say this, I might assume that he/she was trying to say "The police officer [singular] is arresting someone."


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## lovelygirl83130

Bonjour, 

J'ai un peu du mal quand à comprendre si " police were " signifie " les policiers étaient" ou bien " la police était"...
voici la phrase: police were mystified as to why he should have killed himself..."

merci


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## pointvirgule

Eh oui, _police _est un nom collectif employé au pluriel en anglais. 
_The police are investigating → La police enquête._


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## Neniam1966

What if you mean "the police" as the institution (law enforcement) - _not_ police officers. In AmEn, should you still use "the police are"? 

For instance (fictional example): la police est une vieille institution. The police are/is a very old institution?  

Thanks


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## Maître Capello

_The police force *is* a very old institution._


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## Dazza

It depends what the speaker has in mind, whether they (or he/she) view the noun as a single unit or collective noun.
So either: the police is or the police are.
In the cricket they often say: the *England* team/the Barmy army are... (instead of "is"). I prefer to say the *English* team *is*.
But then they always say the Australian team, not the Australia team.
So there's no 100% perfect fit, answer.


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## Neniam1966

Thank you so much Maître Capello for your suggestion and Dazza for your explanation. 

It seemed to me that, indeed, when the speaker has in mind the single unit (as would be the case in my example), the singular could be used, but I kept finding only examples of the plural in dictionaries, so I was wondering if I had dreamed up the distinction


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## Dazza

To confuse things more, Nunki you will usually see a writer narrate: "the police *are*...." and a few sentences later, "the police *has*..." -- inconsistent!


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## Neniam1966

Hahaha yes


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