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Robert Robert is offline
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Default Not happy with "The staff are happy" OR "The staff is happy"

Hi,

According to my sources, "staff" behaves differently in US and UK English.

In US English, when "staff" is the subject of a verb, it is normally
followed by singular verbs only. But plural pronouns can be used:

The staff is currently on vacation. They will be back next Monday.

In UK English, "staff" is normally followed by plural verbs:

The staff in this company are very young.

In US English, "staff" can only be singular:

They have a staff of a hundred working night shifts (but not "A hundred
staff").

In UK English, "staff" can be both singular and plural:

They have a staff of a hundred working night shifts.

but also

They have a hundred staff working night shifts.

In both US and UK English, "staff" can be used in the plural to refer to
more than one such group:

The senators and their staffs.

Obviously, the Word 2007 grammar checker knows nothing about all this.

Hope this helps.

Robert

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On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:38:49 +0100, Terry Farrell wrote:

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.