singular plural doubt

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vishalwin: Master | Next Rank: 500 Posts; Posts: 274; Joined: Fri Sep 18, 2015 10:58 pmFollowed by: 1 member; Thanked: 12 times; GMAT Score:530

by vishalwin » Mon Oct 05, 2015 6:34 am

He collected scores of soil samples for Streptomyces, bacteria that live in the soil and produce antibacterial agents.

In the above sentence ...bacteria is singular or plural? Live... Produce

Can anyone please explain?

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Source: Beat The GMAT — Sentence Correction | Mon Oct 05, 2015 6:34 am

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ceilidh.erickson: GMAT Instructor; Posts: 2095; Joined: Tue Dec 04, 2012 3:22 pmFollowed by: 247 members; Thanked: 1443 times

by ceilidh.erickson » Tue Oct 06, 2015 8:56 am

"Bacteria" is plural. The singular form for one single organism would be "bacterium."

Don't worry, though - the GMAT won't really test you on things like this, as it's more a question of vocabulary than grammar.

Ceilidh Erickson
EdM in Mind, Brain, and Education
Harvard Graduate School of Education

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