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Sztitikow
you will need to pay the remaining balance of the equipment before we will relea
Jan 25, 2005 12:50
19 yrs ago
2 viewers *
English term

there are 41,000 managing staff.

Non-PRO English Bus/Financial Business/Commerce (general)
Is this sentence correct? I mean, is the plural verb forn correct os should it be "is"?
Thanks in advance
Responses
4 +3 Correct
4 +10 there is a managing staff of 41,000
5 are
3 +1 correct

Discussion

Roddy Stegemann Jan 25, 2005:
I am not at all sure that USAmericans and Brits disagree on usage here.
Non-ProZ.com (asker) Jan 25, 2005:
Reply Thank you all for your suggestions. This is UK English.
Roddy Stegemann Jan 25, 2005:
Disclaimer: My full use of this and other forums has been restricted for reasons unknown, so please forgive my lack of direct support for answers offered by other contributors and critical assessment of non-contributors who are misleading and/or abusive.
Roddy Stegemann Jan 25, 2005:
As others have stated the word are is correct. Consider the sentence: "There are 41,000 people who contribute to the organization every day". As Edith has stated staff is a collective noun.
Maria Danielson Jan 25, 2005:
Is this UK or US English? I think US speakers would use the singular form and UK speakers would use the plural form.

Responses

+3
3 mins
Selected

Correct

The collective takes the floor here
Peer comment(s):
agree Mikhail Kropotov
1 min
agree Henrique Serra : See http://www.cherylnorman.com/GG1102.htm
20 mins
agree Charlie Bavington : Speaking as a Brit, I'd consider "staff" as a plural and use "are".
1 hr
So do I. The question was whether staff is sg or pl and did not relate to rephrasing. I could also think of better ways of rephrasing the sentence.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Many thanks. This is what I needed to know."
+10
2 mins

there is a managing staff of 41,000

sounds better to my ear
Peer comment(s):
agree Steffen Walter : Although it's hard to believe that a co. employs so many managers. I suspect that they might be talking about managing a total number of 41,000 employees.
1 min
right you might be ;-)
agree French Foodie
2 mins
agree Java Cafe
8 mins
agree Marie Andersson (Allen)
11 mins
agree Patricia Fierro, M. Sc.
22 mins
agree Ian M-H (X) : yes - and "management staff" would also sound more natural to me (a little large to call a "management team"...)
48 mins
agree Maria Danielson : "is a staff" sounds better to me (I'm American)
1 hr
neutral Charlie Bavington : your suggestion is a good one, but surely the question boils down to: is "staff" without an article considered singular or plural? Consider also "staff eat in the canteen" vs "staff eats in the canteen". And you haven't really answered the question, IMHO
1 hr
agree Jeannie Graham : staff can be used singularly or in the plural, plural being more common in UK, but when an article precedes it as in "a managing staff" then it is unusual to use the plural form. e.g. the staff are having a party, how are the staff coping?
1 hr
agree Will Matter
6 hrs
agree Craft.Content
1 day 1 hr
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+1
3 mins

correct

:) some word is missing (hidden), like "members"
Peer comment(s):
agree Mikhail Kropotov
0 min
thanks
Something went wrong...
4 mins

are

"are" is correct. It means "there are 41000 members of staff who are managers"
Something went wrong...
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