Strict grammatical agreement requires that the verb agree with the collective noun without regard to the referent or plural complement that accompanies it and establishes subject extension: The children’s orchestra played beautiful Christmas songs.

But a plural agreement is also possible, indicating all the elements that make up the collective group: The children’s orchestra performed beautiful Christmas songs. This is a special agreement which New Grammar of the Spanish Language (NGLE) called concordance ad sensum (according to meaning).

The construction of the verb in the singular or plural depends on whether the name of the collective (orchestra) is taken as the core of the subject, which syntactically it is, or whether the plural of the noun denoting the reference (children) is perceived as the core. Concordance ad sensum It is based on logic, because if we think about the meaning of the object in this case, it turns out that it was the children who performed the beautiful Christmas carols.

The Look indicates that «double agreement can also be seen as a syntactic consequence of the classification of nouns. Indeed, many nouns can be interpreted as collective nouns, which leads to agreement in the singular, but also as quantifying collective nouns, which favors the plural variant and the so-called ad sensum».

In short, a deal ad sensum It is optional employment. The speaker must choose singular or plural depending on his communicative intentions: emphasize the participation of the collective noun or highlight the function of the referent. (Updated from Language corner14.6.2015). (F)

SOURCES: Pan-Hispanic Dictionary of Doubts and A new grammar of the Spanish language (electronic versions), from the Royal Spanish Academy and the Association of Academies of the Spanish Language.