Is the word we a collective noun?

Answer 1

No, the word 'we' is a pronoun, a word that takes the pace of a noun in a sentence.

A collective noun is a noun used to group people or things in a descriptive way.

Example collective nouns:

• a crowd of people (the noun 'crowd' groups the people)
• a mob of people (the noun 'mob' groups unruly people)
• a nest of hornets (the noun 'nest' groups the hornets)
• a swarm of hornets (the noun 'swarm' groups hornets in flight)
• a bushel of apples (the noun 'bushel' groups picked apples)
• an orchard of apples (the noun 'orchard' groups apples growing on trees)

The pronoun 'we' is the first person, plural, subjective, personal pronoun; a word that takes the place of a noun for the speaker and one or more other people as the subject of a sentence or a clause.

Examples for the pronoun we:

• My family is taking a vacation. We are going to the beach. (the pronoun 'we' takes the place of the noun 'family' as the subject of the second sentence)
• You and I can finish this if we work together. (the pronoun 'we' takes the place of the compound subject 'you and I' as the subject of the second part of the compound sentence)