Help me settle an argument please!!

[StarryNightSewing29]

Long time user, but I had to make a new account to post at work.

please can you all weigh in and tell us which of these is correct?

1. Royal Mail have delivered.

1. Royal Mail has been delivered.

For context - the postman comes and delivers bags of letters and parcels to us daily.

Royal Mail have delivered

100%

Depends if you usually talk about your post as being “Royal” rather than talking about the company! If the company, then the first. The second if you generally refer to your post as your “Royal Mail” which is..odd

Number 2 reads like the whole of Royal Mail has been delivered to you. Number 2 sounds better but would put has rather than have.

Can you not just say the mail has been delivered?

1 clearly.
2 suggests that the company itself has been delivered to you.

I assume the person saying 2 was meant to say "the post has been delivered"?

Royal Mail is the name of the company so if you change the name to another name, then that will answer the question.

Royal Mail (the company) has delivered. Same as you would say “Amazon has delivered” or “Pizza Express has delivered”. Royal Mail is singular because it’s the name of a company.

Mail has been delivered.

X company have delivered.

@dementedpixie

Number 2 reads like the whole of Royal Mail has been delivered to you. Number 2 sounds better but would put has rather than have.

Can you not just say the mail has been delivered?

That was supposed to say number 1 sounds better but change have to has

It's 'Royal Mail has delivered'. I hate it when organisations use 'have' when they are singular...but some of them like to do it for stylistic reasons. It's really, really, really not 'have'.

I'm assuming it's a typo and you want to say "Royal Mail has delivered".

In which case, both are correct.

Royal Mail is a singular noun so "has" is correct. However, it can also be used as a collective noun like the police, the government, etc, which can precede the third person plural "have".

Royal Mail has delivered.

Or

The postman's been.

Royal Mail have been delivered of a healthy son......

The post has come.

Royal Mail (singular) has delivered.

1. Royal Mail have delivered. (Royal Mail is a company singular, but it is made up of numerous people which is why plural is used)

1. Our post has been delivered.

The latter is much better.

I expect this post to be controversial

1 is correct

@LaetitiaASD

1. Royal Mail have delivered. (Royal Mail is a company singular, but it is made up of numerous people which is why plural is used)

1. Our post has been delivered.

The latter is much better.

I expect this post to be controversial

"Royal Mail is a company singular, but it is made up of numerous people which is why plural is used".

Sorry, you are wrong. People incorrectly use the plural because they think it's correct to do so because it's made up of numerous people. They are wrong.

Think of 'the world is', 'the school is', 'the country is', 'the hospital is', the orchestra is. We would not say 'are'.

'The school are situated at the end of the road.'

Interesting