Collective Nouns
English has some unusual collective nouns that are used to refer to groups of animals. Some of these collective nouns are very rarely used.
There are common ones that most native speakers are familiar with:
A herd of elephants.
A flock of birds.
Even the common nouns aren’t used as much any more. You could just use: group or some. For example:
I swam past a school of fish on the reef.
I swam past a group of fish on the reef.
I swam past some fish on the reef.
There are also some unusual collective nouns that most native speakers don’t even know and are almost never used. For example:
A murder of ravens.
A parcel of deer.
A mustering of storks.
This web site has a listing of lots of collective nouns for groups of animals.
http://www.rinkworks.com/words/collective.shtml
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Tags: English
Posted by Aidan on Mon 23 Aug 2010 at 07:07 under English, Vocabulary | Permalink
Hi, it’s me again.
That’s interesting and very useful. I know a school, herd, flock etc, but after I checked the site you mentioned, there were beyond my head….^^; I need to learn more and more.
Thank you for an interesting article. ;D
Hi Rosily.
Most of them aren’t used that often. But I think they’re interesting to know.
Have fun,
Aidan.