Hi all, when referring to the opponent team as a whole in a football/basketball match, should I call them "opponent" or "opponents"? When I look up this word in the dictionary, the word is defined as a person, but I wonder if it can also refer to a team of players. Many thanks!
:) Manchester had the best players on the day. (Would only sound correct to me if we're talking in relation to something like a competition where many teams played and they were the best of all). They began by defining the concept of a "finite game", as any game between two players that was guaranteed to end within a finite number of moves. Noughts and crosses (also called tic-tac-toe) is one example of a finite game.
players choosing to play club rather than school sports, The church has signed up more than enough volunteers for the festival. b : to hire (someone) to do something especially by having that person sign a contract The team signed up [= signed on] several new players. The record label signed the band up. On the other hand, 'He saw them playing soccer' places an emphasis on the players ('them playing'). 'I have seen them in the classroom and I have seen them playing soccer, and they looked like two different lots of children'.
players choosing to play club rather than school sports, The players of Real Madrid have won the World Cup. Nikon is going to announce a new camera. Nikon representatives are going to announce a new camera. From British folks, articles, etc I often see the plural, when no such distinction is made. It seems to me just to be the British style with collective nouns. Real Madrid have one the World Cup.
Unable to afford the salaries of superstars, the creative Beane goes looking for players who are young, raw and/or overlooked. One recruiting tirtakes him to the home of Scott Hatteburg, a former catcher whose playing career was seemingly ended by an elbow injury. On a cool April night, Taiwan's Chien-Ming Wang took the mound to face the tough Toronto Blue Jays players. I know "took the mound" means "played/were the pitcher," but I wonder whether its litteral meaning is "took the place of the mound" or "ocupied the mound."
