Word is sometimes wrong about grammar.

[Ivy League Professor]

The people who enter grammar rules into Microsoft Word need to know what
they're doing! I find it extremely frustrating when the program tries to
"correct" my writing by suggesting an incorrect change! No wonder so many
students turn in papers littered with errors. Take this sentence for example:
"The majority of people has no idea that Word is wrong in this case."
Word tries to change it to "The majority of people have..." BUT the subject
of the sentence is "the majority," NOT "people," thus making the subject
singular and requiring a singular verb. The sentence is really "The majority
has no idea..." with the possessive phrase "of people" thrown in. It just
really irks me that "corrections" may confuse people and make their grammar
worse.

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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...5&dg=microsoft.public.word.application.errors

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

"Majority" is one of a number of collective nouns that some grammarians
accept as being plural in sense even though it is singular in form. Although
"the majority has" is not incorrect and should not be marked so, "the
majority have" is not incorrect, either. There is a limit to how
sophisticated Word's subject/verb agreement algorithms can be, and anyone
who relies solely on the grammar checker to ensure correct grammar (even
more than anyone who relies solely on the spelling checker to ensure correct
spelling) is living in a fool's paradise.

The people who enter grammar rules into Microsoft Word need to know what
they're doing! I find it extremely frustrating when the program tries to
"correct" my writing by suggesting an incorrect change! No wonder so many
students turn in papers littered with errors. Take this sentence for example:
"The majority of people has no idea that Word is wrong in this case."
Word tries to change it to "The majority of people have..." BUT the subject
of the sentence is "the majority," NOT "people," thus making the subject
singular and requiring a singular verb. The sentence is really "The majority
has no idea..." with the possessive phrase "of people" thrown in. It just
really irks me that "corrections" may confuse people and make their grammar
worse.

----------------
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...5&dg=microsoft.public.word.application.errors