Which is the correct sentence? The staff are on leave today. The staff is on leave today.

Asked by Last Modified  

42 Answers

Follow 4
Answer

Please enter your answer

Bhaskar Jyoti Bora

Tutor

Hi Manoj interesting question, see, staff meaning here a group of people together(became single or unity) and u have also mentioned The, it means u r particularly showing a staff, there is no one like this in the world. So your second sentence is correct I think.
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

English Trainer

Between the above captioned sentences, second sentence is correct as 'the staff' is considered as one team i.e a single unit or you may consider this as singular subject here and a singular subject takes a singular verb i.e 'is'.
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Tutor

The staff is on leave today because staff is a single group.
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

E-Tutor for Spoken English, French and Communication

Oh wow. This is tricky because "staff" is a collective noun. Unfortunately, this means that it is an "it depends" situation. Now, in the above sentence, "staff" acts as a single unit (meaning that every member of the staff is doing the same thing, i.e., every member of the staff is on leave as a whole,...
read more
Oh wow. This is tricky because "staff" is a collective noun. Unfortunately, this means that it is an "it depends" situation. Now, in the above sentence, "staff" acts as a single unit (meaning that every member of the staff is doing the same thing, i.e., every member of the staff is on leave as a whole, thereby acting together as a single unit). So the correct version would be "The staff is on leave today." However if they weren't all on leave and acting as a single unit, then "are" is used. For example, consider the same sentence slightly changed: "Most of the staff are on leave today." or "Some of the staff are on leave today." See the difference? Here, all the staff members are not doing the same thing; only a certain number of people in the group are on leave. Hence, since they don't act together as a single unit here, "are" is used after the collective noun "staff". Hope this helps. :) read less
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Japanese Language Trainer

Don't think that the burden is less. It's more challenging.
1 Comments
Dislike Bookmark

M.A.

I -think both are incorrecct. staff is a collective noun .You should say members of the staff are on leave.
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Teacher for all subjects.

The staff is on leave today.
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Trainer

The staff is on leave today is the correct one. Also you can write - "The staff members are on leave today"
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Oracle, Hindi, C++, C, MS Office, VBScript,JavaScript,Spoken English etc with 32 years of experience

The staff are on leave today.
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

Both are correct.
Comments
Dislike Bookmark

View 40 more Answers

Related Questions

How can I improve my English at home?
Read English book and newspaper
Pratheema
0 0
8
What is the most important starting point for English teachers specializing in Spoken English and language classes? Is it to set the curriculum or to get teaching tools?
The most important starting point is to create an atmosphere. The more we speak the better we learn. :)
Yogi
What are some CAT-level English grammar books?
Data Interpretation & Logical Reasoning Gautam Puri Logical Reasoning and Data Interpretation for the CAT Nishit K. Sinha Data Interpretation & Data Sufficiency Ananta Ashisha ...
Aritra
0 0
8
Who is the father of the Tamil language?
.Maralmalal Adigal is known as father of Tamil Language because of his profound contribution and relentless dedication to the promotion and preservation of Tamil Language and it's rich literary heritage.
Shabeena
0 0
6
Is the letter T disappearing from the spoken English language?
There are two types of accents in English language 1.British Accent - where we use to speak 'T' word 2. American Accent - where we pronounce 'T' as 'D' Thus 'T' word exists.
Nadeem Ahmad

Now ask question in any of the 1000+ Categories, and get Answers from Tutors and Trainers on UrbanPro.com

Ask a Question

Related Lessons

Importance of Phonetics
When you open any English dictionary, you will find some kind of signs after the word, just before the meaning of the word, those signs are called Phonetics. Phonetics will help you, how to...

Kurapati M.

0 0
1
Spoken English Basics - Adverb
An adverb is a word used to qualify or add something to the meaning of a verb, an adjective and even another adverb conveying location, manner, time, or degree. An adverb shows how an action is done and...

Sridevi D.

1 0
0
Tips for Today: Are you going to

S. Saravanan

0 0
0
“Not at All”: Reading Between the Lines in English
The Funny Dance Behind “Not at All” English has a peculiar way of saying polite things without stating them directly. Take a typical exchange: Speaker 1: Thank you Speaker 2 (implied): Don’t...

Mohanraj B

0 0
0
Spoken English - Basics
He comes from America. → → →→ He is an American. She comes from Argentina. → → → She is an Argentinian. He comes from Belgium. → → →→ He is a Belgian. She...

Sridevi D.

1 0
0

Recommended Articles

Which language is more useful to learn French...

Learning any second language could be a little bit tricky. However, to learn a language, one needs to write, read, understand and speak it appropriately. Therefore, many students and professionals find it helpful in learning a foreign language from a reputable and reliable source. A second language helps them to increase...

Read full article >

Learning foreign language in India

If you think English is enough to communicate with anybody in this world, you are sadly misinformed. Statistically the highest spoken foreign language in the world is Chinese with 20.7%, followed by English at 6.2%. That means that 93.8% of people do not speak English. This makes it necessary to learn another foreign language...

Read full article >

Choosing the right Foreign Language to learn...

When globalization was out of picture, it was enough to know just the mother tongue. Since globalization and out-sourcing have become part of life, there is a nagging need to learn new languages. Foreign languages help us to communicate with potential clients, sell our ideas and bond with their culture. It could be opening...

Read full article >

Job Prospects for German Language Learners

Due to globalization of the Indian economy, the demand for learning foreign languages is on the rise. ITES (Information Technology Enabled Service) and Outsourcing have brought a lot of job opportunities paving the way for the learning foreign languages. German is the native language of more than 100 million people in...

Read full article >

Find Spoken English classes near you
Spoken English classes in Delhi
Spoken English classes in Bangalore
Spoken English classes in Hyderabad
Spoken English classes in Chennai
Spoken English classes in Mumbai
Spoken English classes in Kolkata
Spoken English classes in Pune
Spoken English classes in Noida
Spoken English classes in Gurgaon
Spoken English classes in Lucknow
Online Spoken English Classes

Looking for Spoken English classes?

Learn from the Best Tutors on UrbanPro

Are you a Tutor or Training Institute?

Join UrbanPro Today to find students near you