My family have 4 people / There are 4 people in my family (2025)

Dear Gurus,
Which question (A or B) sounds natural:
A. My family have 4 people: my mum, dad, brother and I. - [should we say 'have' in BrE and 'has' in AmE?] and ['I' or 'me' - which is OK?)
B. There are 4 people in my family: my mum, dad, brother and I. (or 'me'?)

Thank you!

Olaszinhok said:

I is preferred to me in the above examples.

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It shouldn't be, because these four individuals are not appearing in a subject role.

Creature from the Sun said:

[should we say 'have' in BrE and 'has' in AmE?]

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No, we should only say "has", because this tells us what the

consists of, and that unit is singular, not plural. In a different context, "family"

sometimes be treated as a collective plural (for example "My family have been to Portugal several times", but even then I'd expect the singular to be more usual).

Edinburgher said:

It shouldn't be, because these four individuals are not appearing in a subject role

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Sorry! you're obviously right. I didn't read well…

Thank you so much, tunaafi, pintusarker, Olaszinhok, Edinburgher! I got the point

Edinburgher said:

It shouldn't be, because these four individuals are not appearing in a subject role.

No, we should only say "has", because this tells us what the

family unit

consists of, and that unit is singular, not plural. In a different context, "family"

can

sometimes be treated as a collective plural (for example "My family have been to Portugal several times", but even then I'd expect the singular to be more usual).

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Thank you, Edinburgher, for drawing my attention! I really had an opinion that in BrE "family", "jury", "team", "group" must be used as a collective plural in all contexts, while in AmE - as single.
So, as far as four individuals are not appearing in a subject role, we should use "her, him ..." here, like "There are 4 people in my friend's family: his mum, dad, brother and him." , right?

Creature from the Sun said:

and him." , right?

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Edinburgher said:

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Thank you, Edinburgher!

Creature from the Sun said:

I really had an opinion that in BrE "family", "jury", "team", "group"

must

be used as a collective plural in all contexts, while in AmE - as single.

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The modal I have underlined should be may or can.

tunaafi said:

The modal I have underlined should be may or can.

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Thank you very much, tunaafi. It is really important to me to understand the point as deep as possible.