<p>1.) The Navajo, who migrated from Canada to the southwestern United States at the same time as the Apache, speak an Apachean language.</p>
<p>Answer: Choice (A)-correct as written
Source: Collegeboard blue book</p>
<p>My Question: Shouldn't the verb be "speaks," since the Navajo are considered to be in a group, hence singular?</p>
<p>I agree with you. I don’t know why the blue book would say correct as written. Anyone?</p>
<p>Sometimes, even if we have a collective noun, we use the plural form of the verb. This is the case with people and police, for example. In your question, I’m pretty sure that people is somehow implied, for the intended meaning is that the Navajo PEOPLE speak an apachean language. Anyway, try to read the sentence aloud with ‘speaks’ instead of ‘speak’ and you will see it sounds extremely awkward…</p>
<p>See [The</a> Collective Noun](<a href=“http://www.chompchomp.com/terms/collectivenoun.htm]The”>The Collective Noun | Grammar Bytes!).
In this case, each (and presumably more than one) person is speaking, not the Navajo Nation, so plural is correct.</p>
<p>in this context “the Navajo” is considered as the members of “the Navajo”, not this group
my family owns a helicopter. (the family owns)
my family speak English. (members in this family speak… the “people” is implied)</p>