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Would you rewrite that to say, for example, "The members of my family are..." ?
Annatie,
Agreed that over this side of the Pond we often use singular nouns as plurals when they refer to composites. I don't have a problem with that, though (shanks) as it's just an abbreviated reference.
I could refer to my family as a unit - "my family is very close" or I could refer to it as a composite - "my family live in a variety of different places". I suppose in the latter case I would implicitly be saying "the members of my family", but that's unwieldy.
Sometimes it's more appropriate to refer to a company as a plural, when you want to emphasize the implicit "we" for instance.
There you go, an example of Brits removing something not essential to understanding! Wonders never cease
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