Hi everybody,

I hope some kind user can help me to clarify the following:

I want to mention a group of engineer, so would I say:

The engineer(singular)? or I would rather say The engineers(plural)?...

If I say it in singular, does it refer clearly to a group of engineer (as I would say flock -in singular- referring to a group of birds)??

Thanx a lot in advance

Reme wrote:

I want to mention a group of engineer, so would I say: The engineer(singular)? or I would rather say The engineers(plural)?... If I say it in singular, does it refer clearly to a group of engineer (as I would say flock -in singular- referring to a group of birds)?? Thanx a lot in advance

You can use the engineer if you want to show a typical behavior of a group through a typical behavior of one member of a group.

The African elephant has a longer tail.= all elephants that belong to a group of African elephant have a longer tail.

In that case it is necessary that the group of engineers is somehow specific.

The nuclear engineer deals with nuclear energy. = A group of nuclear engineers that deal with nuclear energy.

It is not necessary to have an adjective before engineer but from the context it must be obvious then which specific group you want to speak about.

But as CJ said you cannot use the engineer just for any group of engineers.

(bird+bird+bird+bird+bird=flock) (engineer + engineer + engineer + engineer + engineer =flock of engineers, cannot be linked with the engineer unless they are all specific)