The original posting referred to "staff" as a (happy) group of people. This
is the meaning where grammatical use might be different. In this particular
sense, "staff" belongs to the so-called "group" or "collective" nouns.
Michael Swan (Practical English Usage, OUP) gives the following examples of
"group nouns":
bank
the BBC
choir
class
club
committee
England (the football team)
family
firm
government
jury
minister
orchestra
party
public
school
staff
team
union
In US English, singular verbs are normally used with the above words
(senses), with the exception of "family" which can be followed by a plural
verb.
In UK English, both singular and plural verbs can actually be used,
depending on whether the group is considered as a group of individuals or
as an impersonal entity.
Michael Swan gives the following examples of use:
My firm are wonderful. They do all they can to help me.
My firm was founded in the 18th century.
All other senses of "staff" do not belong to the set of "collective nouns"
and grammatically behave in the same way in both US and UK English.
Note that "staff" meaning "a set of five lines on which music is written"
might be treated differently in US and UK English. Sources disagree on the
use of "staff/staffs" for a set of musical lines: some say such use belongs
exclusively to (modern) US English (UK English using "stave/staves"); other
sources say that "staff/staffs", "stave/staves" are used indifferently in
both US and UK English; and other sources still say that both can be used,
but that UK English has a preference for "stave/staves", US English for
"staff/staffs". Take your pick!
It is clear that no automatic grammar checker could ever make appropriate
suggestions regarding such murky areas...
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On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 08:31:01 -0500, Suzanne S. Barnhill wrote:
How does UK English handle the use of "staff" to mean a walking stick or a
musical staff, either of which is decidedly singular?