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- Topic: Polish >
- "Personel pracuje."
43 Comments
1041
I would. But I would never say something like "the staff are working", so it's probably a regional thing.
"Personel" means a group of people, but such words are usually grammatically singular in Polish. It cannot just mean one member of staff.
"Staff is" vs "Staff are" seems to be mostly American vs British thing, although it may be also a personal preference. Anyway, it's not that "staff is" is incorrect for all English language natives.
I made "Staff are" an equally good 'best answer'.
That's not entirely true. I'm American and I've heard both. I debated which to use the first time encountering this sentence in Polish on Duolingo, and chose "The staff is" as opposed to "The staff are".. So for some reason, this native American English speaker decided it was the better answer. Admitting, it could go the other way.
Ditto. Also american english does use staff usually as a singular collective noun. Examples: The staff is on holiday. My staff is great. The staff is eating cake.
Therefore, The staff is working is the proper American English.
Let's see if I dig out my 'Warrnier's Handbook' as I would assume staff should be in the collective noun section.
Look at that : "5k. Collective nouns may be either singular or plural.
A collective noun names a group: crowd, committee, jury, class. A collective noun takes a plural verb when the speaker is thinking of the individual members of the group; it takes a singular verb when the speaker is thinking of the group as a unit.
The audience were entering the theater. [The speaker is thinking of the individuals in the audience.]
The audience was one of the best. [The speaker is thinking of the audience as a whole, single unit.]
The team have voted eighteen to three to buy new uniforms.
The team has won the semifinals."
Well, ha. I only remembered it acted as singlular.... I wonder if that is what I learned in grade school, and thus that stuck better. Apoarently I do not review my grammar enough
-ować conjugation IV
- ić (mówić)conjugation VIa
they both end with "ę" in present first person singular
1433
If "is" and "are" are treated equally then should there not be an option to use "are" in the word selection
Whether "staff" is treated as singular or plural, that depends on whether you speak American or British English. Both variants are accepted. "personel" means exactly the same as "staff" in American English, it's a singular noun describing numerous people.
"employee" is "pracownik" (male) or "pracownica/pracowniczka" (female).
It is correct English. Please take a look at the explanations in this comment section.
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/12644363?comment_id=39187221
https://forum.duolingo.com/comment/12644363?comment_id=17777393