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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

I need help with grammar.

I know this isn't correcting my answer to a grammar question; however, I thought I was using correct grammar and Microsoft Word disagrees. Can you help? The sentence I wrote was:

When I worked as an accountant, there were no other finance or accounting employees in the company, so I was given the job of incorporating it all together.

Microsoft Word wants me to use "was" instead of "were". Which is correct?
  

Top answer

The sentence is correct as written. Clumsy ol' Word probably mistook the plural verb for an error because of or , which would require a singular verb if the nouns weren't modifiers or if the modified noun were singular. There were no apple or grapefruit trees .

— RandomGuy

  • The sentence is correct as written.
  • Clumsy ol' Word probably mistook the plural verb for an error because of or , which would require a singular verb if the nouns weren't modifiers or if the modified noun were singular.
  • There were no apple or grapefruit trees .
  • There was no apple or grapefruit tree .
  • There was no apple or grapefruit .
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2 Answers
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The sentence is correct as written. Clumsy ol' Word probably mistook the plural verb for an error because of or, which would require a singular verb if the nouns weren't modifiers or if the modified noun were singular.

There were no apple or grapefruit trees.
There was no apple or grapefruit tree.
There was n
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Word's grammar checker will mess you up. It is worse than nothing for a learner. It saw "finance" and thought it was a singular noun, not the adjective it is.
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