Fix Word's handling of collective nouns "staff" and "crowd"

[Bill Davy]

From a newsgroup:

Word 2000 seems to handle it correctly, though.

--
Stefan Blom
Microsoft Word MVP


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.

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...47a294&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

The real problem is that the staff can't possibly be happy if they're using
the grammar checker. ;-)

If there's such a thing as artificial intelligence, then the grammar checker
is an example of artificial ignorance. It gives me incorrect and bad advice
much more often than it gives good/correct advice, so I keep it turned off.
It applies rigid rules and doesn't seem to be able consistently to
distinguish verbs and nouns in context. Until it can, it's a novelty that is
only occasionally correct.

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com