Word ‘advised’ me on my grammar yesterday. It suggested that I change the following sentence:
“If the fields do not match what we expect then we are not going to be able to process the data.”
to:
“If the fields do not match what we expect then we is not going to be able to process the data.”
Have I accidentally enabled ‘Ali G’ mode, or something?
Alternatively, can someone tell me why Word is suggesting ‘is’ in that case?
I’d suggest it has something to do with the fact that the number of the agreeing word (is and are)is determined by the number of the word in question (we is the singular manner of referring to a group) and as such ‘is’ aggrees with it based solely on the individual words and their aggreeing terms. Contextually this obviously doesnt work and word isnt able to fully understand context as well as literary form. That’s my half-assed attempt to explain what i learnt a few years ago in a basic linguistics subject. It’s late and i’m tired, but im sure someone else could do a better job. Otherwise, email a linguistics lecturer, they are nerdy and will enjoy explaining it.
What’s the saying… something about workmen and tools…
Try using the following:
“If the fields do not match the expected values we will not be able to process the data.”
We calls it Ingerleesh.
I must say I agree with Ian. I read yours and thought it was clumsy. Ian’s version is much clearer. Alternatively, maybe WORD (shouldn’t you be using Open Office by the way?) doesn’t want you dealing in plurals: “If the field does not match what I expects then I is not going to be able to process the datum.”