Word’s grammar checker is good, very good but it’s not perfect. Here’s the latest example of wrong advice under that blue underline.
Office Watch reader, Simone J from Berlin sent us this English language anomaly in Word.
“Your Latin and calligraphy skills are some of the best I’ve even seen”
It’s the same error in US, Canada, UK and Aussie English.
Suggesting ‘bests’ is wrong. Word has got its nouns mixed up and isn’t sure if the words “Latin” or “Calligraphy” are singular or plural. Beyond that, suggesting ‘bests’ doesn’t make any sense.
To be fair, Word only says to “Double-check” the word.
Let’s go a little further by switching the sentence around a little. This sentence removes the ‘bests’ error but adds another correction.
“Your reading and writing skills are some of the best I’ve even seen”
Now Word ‘knows’ about the words “reading” and “writing” so it can figure out that ‘best’ is, er best.
But if there are words it’s unsure of, Word will issue a warning. This sentence switches back to the “bests” suggestion because Word isn’t sure if ‘carpentry’ is singular or plural.
“Your reading and carpentry skills are some of the best I’ve even seen”
However, the singular/plural doesn’t really matter because you’d never use the word ‘bests’ in that context, regardless of the noun.
“Bests” means ‘defeat’, ‘overcomes’ or even ‘creams’ (a real Word synonym suggestion). As in “She bests all competition in both Latin and calligraphy”.
The bottom line
Word’s grammar checking is very clever, especially considering the variations and exceptions that abound in English.
But it’s not perfect.
Don’t take a blue grammar underline as the ultimate judge of grammar – in English or any other language.
Largest to smallest, Word’s missing grammar check
Inside Microsoft’s “Top Grammar Mistakes” in Word
The mystery grammar mistake that Microsoft Word doesn’t always fix
