Microsoft Word and grammar

[Rufus T. Firefly]

So I'm typing a letter in Word, and when I type the phrase

there's little with me that's new

Word puts a green squiggle under "that's," indicating that it doesn't like my grammar. This happens all the time, of course; Word's grammar check seems to be unable to handle any linguistic or syntactic complexity beyond what one would find in a third-grade primer. (Someday I'm going to cut-and-past some Faulkner into Word, just to see if anything doesn't get underlined.)

Anyway, knowing the failings of this feature, I'm tempted to ignore it as usual -- but curiosity gets the better of me, and I decide to see what Word thinks is the appropriate substitute for "that's." I right-click and get one choice:

that am

"that am"?

And now I'm stumped. Forget my letter and its commonplace phrase; is there any grammatically-correct way to use the phrase "that am" in English? Anybody? Anybody? Bueller?

[ColdPhoenix]

You must have a different version of word from what I'm using at work. It doesn't even underline them nevermind give some odd replacement suggestion.

How about, "I that am king of this thread"?!

[Lorizael]

More likely than the two of you having different versions of Word, you probably just have different settings for your grammar checker. The grammar checker is very customizable, but there's no setting that allows it to be correct.

[snoopy369]

I've noticed that it often underlines it's, when used correctly ("it is"), because Word isn't smart enough to figure out if you mean it is or its possessive, and so it just reminds you that it could be the other way around. Maybe it's the case with that's as well? Is Thats (possessive) a word? I guess so, firefox thinks it is anyway.

[LordShiva]

Re: Microsoft Word and grammar

Originally posted by Rufus T. Firefly
is there any grammatically-correct way to use the phrase "that am" in English?

i that am not
what i am not
that i am not
what i am
that which is not
what it is
is certainly not
that which i am
-Leonard Ellis

[Rufus T. Firefly]

And the prize goes to Lord Shiva...except "I that am not" still seems grammatically incorrect to me; "I who am not" is surely preferable.

[snoopy369]

That is correct in that phrase. He is not referring to who (what person, personality, etc) he is, but what he is in a more ... metaphysical ? ... sense. Rewritten for modern grammar that would be,

I am not that which I am not. [I am not a monkey, ie.]

[Lord Avalon]

Originally posted by Lorizael
More likely than the two of you having different versions of Word, you probably just have different settings for your grammar checker. The grammar checker is very customizable, but there's no setting that allows it to be correct.

There's always the 'off' setting.