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Posted to microsoft.public.word.newusers,microsoft.public.word.spelling.grammar
Bill Davy[_2_] Bill Davy[_2_] is offline
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Default Not happy with "The staff are happy" OR "The staff is happy"

OK, I'll log it to MS. Hey ho.

"Terry Farrell" wrote in message
...
Bill

Not fixable. It is still present in W2007 too.

Staff (and crowd) are collective nouns, so 'the staff is' and 'the crowd
is' are both correct. The grammar checker happily accepts 'is or are' with
crowd - but with staff, the checker accepts neither as correct.

Both the handling of crowd and staff are inconsistent and daft.

--
Terry Farrell - MS Word MVP

"Bill Davy" wrote in message
...
In fact, the grammar checker seems to have green twiddlyitis with the
following:



The staff are happy. "staff are" have twiddles (suggests "staff is" but
see below)

Staff are happy. "staff are" have twiddles (suggests "Staff is" or
"Staffs are"

Staff is happy. "Staff" has twiddles (suggests "staffs").

The staff is happy. "Staff" has twiddles (suggests "staffs" but see
above).

A staff is happy. "A staff" has twiddles (suggests "Staffs")



Is it fixable? How?



Word 2003 SP2.