Do I use "son" or "es"?
This is pretty simple, I know, but I was wondering if the sentence is "La familia es de Tejas" or "La familia son de Tejas"?
4 Answers
Welcome to the forum
In this it works just like English. At least I can speak for American English. British English sometimes handles collective nouns differently than I do as an American English speaker.
The family is from Texas. (Not are)
La familia es de Tejas. (Not son)
Just like the team is, the group is, etc. El equipo es, el grupo es.
Now you can say Los miembros del familia son....The members of the family are...
The one that gets English speakers is the most I think is:
La gente es...
The people are...
But anyway, a singular subject normally gets a singular verb. Even if it is a singular group.
A reference article on the subject, that includes when you can break the rule:
https://www.thoughtco.com/collective-noun-spanish-3079277
In standard English, collective nouns, when the subject of a sentence, are typically used with a singular verb: "The class of students studies hard." In Spanish, a verb that immediately follows a collective noun is singular: La gente tiene mucho dinero. ("The people have a lot of money." Note that this is an example of a Spanish singular noun that normally requires a plural translation in English.) But when there is a plural noun between the collective noun and verb, either a singular or plural verb can be used in everyday speech and writing, with the plural verb probably being more common. Thus you might hear both La bandada de pájaros se acercó ("The flock of birds approached," singular verb) and La bandada de pájaros se acercarón ("The flock of birds approached," plural verb), with no appreciable difference in meaning.
This would be the British usage.
family singular or plural
In Spanish singular nouns are always considered as such, singular.
la familia, la gente, la policía : singular noun = es.
Same happens the other way round.
If a word is plural, los familiares, las gentes (very seldom used , but anyway), los policías: plural noun = son.
Unlike in English: news is always singular...very annoying if you ask me 
You can also ask my students, jejeje, crazy language 
(Just to add a little to what Bosque has said.)
Always check out the article. If it's "el" or "la" it's going to be singular--a collective noun. The family may have 4,000 members, but it is still ONE family. "La familia ES."
That also goes for "la gente" and others that I can't think of now. 
La familia es de Texas. (singular verb)
La policía está vestida de azul en mi ciudad. (singular verb)
La gente es buena. (singular verb)
El equipo de fútbol tiene buenos jugadores. (singular verb)
El gobierno no tiene buenos planes económicos. (singular verb)
In Spanish even collective nouns if they are singular take a verb in singular.and not in plural as it many times happens in English.
