It depends on whether you want to appear literate or not

[camjuniper]

Dear Mr. I-Taught-English-I-Know-What-I'm-Talking-About:

I looked it up. "Staff" is typically (though, I'll grant you this, not always) a singular, uncountable noun. Which mean our use of library staff is not allowed . . . is perfectly acceptable grammar.

I'm going to have to deny your application for joining the grammar police (as you put it "The world needs grammar police") as I was able to figure this out A) by reading the sentence and B) googling for about 30 seconds to verify what I remembered.

In conclusion, our signs don't need to be changed, we're clearly literate, and you're probably the only one who's ever read the damn sign anyway.

Ever so much love,
Your Reference Desk Jockey of the Day

PS: I've got a BA in English & Classics. I think I can handle proof reading our signs.

----

I just wish I'd been able to snap this back at him before he huffed off with his grammatically correct printouts . . . . oh well.

[Argabarga]

So, he thought that it should have read "Library staffs"?

If so, Well, sure, if you'd been issued customer-beating sticks of wood, then yes, that would be correct.

[ReadyToRetire]

PS: I've got a BA in English & Classics. I think I can handle proof reading our signs.

.

*ahem*
Proofreading is one word, not two.

*ducks and runs away*

[Pixilated]

to ReadyToRetire.

camjuniper, unfortunately this is an all-too-common problem -- I'll bet you've run into more than your fair share. As far as I know, grammar is either ill-taught or not taught at all anymore, with the result that people become extremely confused when it comes to uncountable nouns. It refers to more than one, thus it must be plural, thus it must go with the plural form of the verb ...

Ain't English fun??

[camjuniper]

Knew I should have googled proofreading. Oh well . . . further proof that any number of qualifications for English language expertise can still fail you.

I would definitely order troublesome patron thwapping staffs--and wield them mercilessly.

The part I liked best was his hoity-toity "I was an English teacher for XXX years, you know" and he still got his grammar wrong--or at least we didn't get ours wrong!

[Merriweather]

Some people have way too much time on their hands, and way too much inclination to be a pain in the a**.

I do admit to being one of those people who is irritated by bad spelling or grammar, but mainly glaring errors in places that should be of high standard, like textbooks, newspapers, job ads, etc. I'm not an English major, I'm sure I dangle participles and split infinitives and otherwise torture totally "proper" English , and I also feel there are times when common usage should trump by-the-book grammar, unless one wants to sound like a dictionary rather than a real person.

I'm truly not sure which is by-the-book proper in this case, but I can say that common usage on what is a singular noun can vary by where you live. I know when we moved to the UK, some things just sounded a bit odd to my American ears until I got used to them, and now either is fine with me. Best example I can think of, in the US we would tend to say "Woolworth's IS having a sale today". In the UK, it would usually be said "Woolworth's ARE having a sale".
I can't recall an instance of the word staff, but I'm pretty sure in the UK it would be said "the staff ARE in a meeting", where here in the US most people would say "the staff IS in a meeting".

As I said, not sure which is totally proper (or if American English has different rules than the Queen's English), but common usage is different. Bottom line, IMO, it simply isn't something worth being a total jerk to the staff (be they plural or singular

[camjuniper]

I can't recall an instance of the word staff, but I'm pretty sure in the UK it would be said "the staff ARE in a meeting", where here in the US most people would say "the staff IS in a meeting".

As I said, not sure which is totally proper (or if American English has different rules than the Queen's English), but common usage is different. Bottom line, IMO, it simply isn't something worth being a total jerk to the staff (be they plural or singular

Hm, the person in question does have a British accent, so it's possible his version was correct for him. I bet he spends a lot of time agonizing over how terrible American English is without ever learning the differences.

[EricKei]

So, he thought that it should have read "Library staffs"?

If so, Well, sure, if you'd been issued customer-beating sticks of wood, then yes, that would be correct.

Well, it's "staves" if you're talking about pieces of wood

*runs away before Arga can grab any more sticks*

[workerbee222]

This was a paragraph from a man advertising for a date in an on-line dating site:

I am looking for someone who wants me in there life! Who values my attributes and feels comfortable giving me feedback on my shortcomings, who doesn't use "should" in their vocabulary very often, and who feels as comfortable outdoors as they do in front of a fire or in bed... Intelligence and at least a college or master's/doctorate degree is very important to me...


I did (helpfully) respond to this man, sending along a re-write. He did not respond.

[Mytical]

We don't need no grammer, and speling..speeling..spelliing is for the birds....

*ducks and covers* Don't hurt me!!

[KatherineB]

I had occasion to shout at the television this morning. One of the morning shows here in Australia had the following line:

"Millions of Venezualans are waiting in line for their chance to bypass the coffin of the late Hugo Chavez."

I don't think that word means what you think it does.

[Sapphire Silk]

As I said, not sure which is totally proper (or if American English has different rules than the Queen's English), but common usage is different. Bottom line, IMO, it simply isn't something worth being a total jerk to the staff (be they plural or singular

When it comes to sentence structure, punctuation, and so forth there aren't any real differences. There are differences in spelling; Queens English tends to add vowels that Americans don't use. For example, I'd spell the word color, while our UK members and probably Aussie/NZ members would probably spell it colour. I see a lot of this from my ESL students who learned English in a former British colony, and not the United States or US Territories.

Some colloquialisms are different. Slang's different. A rubber to a Brit means an eraser, to me it means a condom.

As David George Lloyd put it: Americans and Brits are two countries separated by a common language.

[BookstoreEscapee]

...Who...feels comfortable giving me feedback on my shortcomings...
... He did not respond.

Guess he's not so open to feedback, after all.

[Argabarga]

I don't think that word means what you think it does.

Unless there are a lot of people avoiding him... even in death.

[MoonCat]

I hate customers that try to "correct" things like that. We have a specific format for death notices, and while we don't stick to it as stringently as we used to, it's still in use. I hate people (they always claim they are teachers) who want to "correct" the sentence structure. They always take a very condescending tone of voice, too.