Grammar

Question

Which is correct,,  Staff is or staff are (required to do something)

Karansardana · Accepted Answer

Staff is

Cool Breeze · Answer

Both are fine. Are is mostly used in British English.

CB

Anonymous · Answer

I HAVE CHECKED MY BOOKS BEFORE POSTING

(1) I agree that we Americans usually use "is" when thinking of the

workers as a unit.

(2) Here is an example from one of my books: (I have slightly

changed it)

Half of the staff (seem) (seems) to be looking for new jobs.

The writer explains that probably they are not doing it as a unit

but individually. So he suggests using "seem."

(3) Sometimes perhaps it is a matter of sound.

A famous American TV personality recently said:

"Half of my staff are women." I think that some people

would suggest "is" because he was presumably thinking of his

staff as a unit. Yet the "are" seems to sound better with the

complement "women." (Compare: Half of my staff is female.

Half of my staff are (???) female.)

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