In addition, a staff doesn't have to be people. It can be a walking staff or
a musical staff (though I think the plural of that is "staves").
--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
"pbkry2r" wrote in message
...
Technically, "staff" is a singular noun, if we're talking American
English.
The suggested Word spell-check changes are correct. "Staff" is a group,
which
is a singular thing, even though it's composed of many people. However,
singulars that should be plurals are very often misused, and that misuse
has
become standard English in casual use. All the newspapers I've worked for,
and the publishing house where I now work, use it as a singular noun. So
I'd
write "staff is" or "staff members are." British and other English uses
may
differ. If you're writing for an organization that prefers "staff are,"
then
use that.
"Simon-L" wrote:
Whenever I'm typing up a document and put in a statement like:
Staff are always encouraged to do the right thing.
Why is it that Word always wants me to change it to one of two things:
1. Staffs are always encouraged to do the right thing, or;
2. Staff is always encouraged to do the right thing.
Both suggested sentences are wrong and my original sentence is correct.
I've noticed this (and similar) problems with the grammar checker for a
long
time, has no-one pointed this out before or is it a really tricky rule to
program?