The Word Cloud

"Their Headquarters are here"

Is this correct? Surely Headquarters is singular?
I have just heard this on Nat. Geographic. Perhaps it's an American convention. Does anyone know?

Manchester City scores first. So, a football club is singular.
Leeds loses. Okay, but it doesn't sound right.

Do I need Skunk and Right?

UK style is that it depends whether a noun like "Headquarters" is being used in the sense of a group of people, or a unit.

So:

Headquarters are having a meeting.

Headquarters is being painted.

Headquarters is moving to Salford and it'll be a much nicer place
Headquarters are moving to Salford and they're very pleased about it.

US tends to be more doctrinaire, and insist that a noun like that is singular, so I'm interested that Nat Geog don't - on the other hand, I see why in that sentence, if the focus is on several people (animals?)

UK - you could write "The crowd are scattering in all directions" whereas many US editors would insist that it's "The crowd is scattering in all directions", even when the singular object is actually breaking up into its plural parts...

I instinctively say 'Manchester City beat Manchester United' because it is the collective group of players who do the beating, not a football club in its totality. Okay, I know it is not technically correct. The spoken word often isn't, but it's a different matter when you're trying to please doctrinaire editors with a MS.

Thank you, Emma, for clarifying. I am English, and will stick to English, not American English.
However, in your last example, I would use "The crowd is scattering ..." without thinking.
If you say "The crowd are scattering ..." it sounds as though crowd should be plural. Hence "The crowds are scattering ..."
I see it as a single unit that is scattering. We're not talking about individuals.
So, "The police unit in the crowd is scattering" but "The police in the crowd are scattering"

I don't like American English - "Where is he at?" Yuk, Ugh, Spit.
"He's gotten a fire cerificate." Vomit, puke.

But, in the crowd case, they have a point.

The crowd is a lump of people so 'is' for me.

The Headquarters is another lump, so an 'is' vote frome me. I would say "Their Headquarters is here."

- Malc

I agree that Leeds loses doesn't sound right but for different reasons! I would say 'the crowd is...'. When I'm writing medical articles, we are very correct and write 'data were presented...' which is one that people commonly get wrong.