Question re:grammar?

A group of firefighters IS ready.
Because it’s the group you’re talking about. Although it is a collective, it is considered singular.
If you were to say “The groupS of firefighters…”, that would be plural again, and you would use ARE.

What he said ^

If this sentence appeared in a book I was copyediting, I would choose the singular verb “is.”

I would then be bothered by the plural “their” because the antecedent is “group” as well (the antecedent can’t be in the prepositional phrase). I would then be looking for a workaround and would find it here:

The firefighters are ready to respond from their new firehouse.

A dialogue with the writer might ensue if the writer felt that it was important to specify “group,” and we might come to another solution, one that worked for both of us.

That depends on what your definition of IS is.

@filmfann Bill Clinton: So, when somebody says I was an embarrassment to the country, I say “It depends on what the meaning of ‘was’ is, jerk.” You owe me $200,000.

What @jeruba said. * Sigh * – she be so smart.

Again, I must agree with Jeruba, particularly about the ‘their’.

You go with the subject of the sentence, not the prepositional phrase. Just read the sentence without the prep. phrase, and you’ve got it.

The sentence should read “is” because the subject is “a group”, as in one singular group. A good way to test in situations like that is to take out the extra parts of the sentence. Find the subject and the verb, and take out everything else. Then it becomes very easy to see what the answer should be:

”A group of firefighters (is or are) ready to respond from their new firehouse.”

So, eliminating the excess leaves:

A group (is or are). The answer has become pretty simple now, right?

Edit: Of course @Facade said the same thing in like one sentence and beat me to the punch. I hope it’s tasty punch @Facade! ;-)

IS, I agree with everyone above. If you don’t want to change the sentence as @Jeruba suggested, which I think is a good suggestion, I think you could write a group of firefighters is ready to respond from the new firehouse. Changing their to the. But, I am no expert so you might want consesus from some f the others on the thread.

After Jeruba’s comments, there is no point in continuing this thread. Let’s all meet at the cake and coffee recipe club question. See ya.

ZEN OUT

Thanks to all.

This sentence was read by one of the local twit newscasters as “a group… ARE” and it sounded so right and I thought it was wrong.

Thanks for the confirmation

@Zen_Again I’ll bring the sponge cake

SRM

‘is’
A group is ready
But Some firefighters are ready.
The subject of the sentence is “group” – a singular noun.

@srmorgan zen loves spongecake. But needs to wash it down with something too. JP? where you be at?

He be post Pabst napping.