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Microsoft Word's spell (and grammar) checker makes the italic part of the following sentence sentence light up in green:

Considering how both of the rotation vector sensors seem to have trouble handling vehicular motion, be it from static magnetic fields or accelerometer misinterpretations, using the gyroscope with a custom filtering solution seems like the most compelling alternative.

To avoid misunderstandings, here are some facts about what I'm trying to convey:

  • There are two separate sensors that fall under the "rotation vector" type
  • Both of them are having trouble with vehicular motion
  • The reasons they have trouble can be interference from static magnetic fields (one or many) and/or making misinterpretations of accelerometer readings.
  • Even if it's just one sensor, the accelerometer misinterpretations should be plural (since they keep making them).

The suggestions that come up are the following:

Suggestions

The first one seems plain wrong. The second one is also wrong, since there are many misinterpretations happening. The third one is just... no.

Now, to my knowledge my sentence is correct, and my guess is that the spell checker misinterprets the part following the last comma sign to be a subordinate clause of the middle part. When I read it out loud, I get the feeling that both the second and last parts ("part" defined as something between punctuation signs) are both subordinate clauses of the first part.

A tip I learned somewhere was to reduce the sentence (remove the "fluff") to see the structure more clearly. In this case that could be something like:

Considering A (noun, plural) seem to B (verb), be it from X or Y (nouns, both plural), using C (noun, singular) seems like D (noun, singular).

I don't see anything particular that would be wrong with this, but at the same time it feels a bit strange. English being my second language, I'm not entirely sure what to think.

Should I just ignore the spell checker and leave it as-is, or is there something wrong with my sentence that I should correct?

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  • 4
    That's one long sentence. Could you split it up? Something like; "It seems that static magnetic fields or accelerometer misinterpretations causes the rotation vector sensors to have trouble handling vehicular motion. For this reason using the gyroscope with a custom filtering solution seems like the most compelling alternative."
    – Taemyr
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 12:33
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    To actually answer the question phrased in the title requires an answer with a very detailed analysis of how the grammar checker works. That goes far beyond English Language Learning and probably is rather a question for Linguistics or perhaps one of the sites involving machine learning.
    – gerrit
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 12:53
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    @gerrit I see your point. However, I think an answer like that from user Dan Henderson could be considered answering the title question without delving deeper into the inner workings of the grammar checker. Even though such an investigation would surely be very interesting.
    – Svj0hn
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 12:58
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    Nothing wrong with the sentence, it's just the limitations of Word's grammar checker; it doesn't deal well with "be it". Changing "be it" to "whether" is another way to eliminate the highlighting, if that's your goal.
    – barbecue
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 20:54

4 Answers 4

Reset to default
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There is nothing wrong with your grammar. The grammar checker incorrectly believes you have made an error in plurality between misinterpretations and seems, when in fact the verb seems is tied to the gerund using.
This is evidenced by the three suggestions it offers: making misinterpretations singular; making seems plural; or making misinterpretations into a possessive.

However, if you add the word from in front of accelerometer, then the grammar checker might better understand your sentence.

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  • Good answer. I think it explains well why it fussed over that particular sentence. Adding the word from in the location you suggested did indeed remove the warning.
    – Svj0hn
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 13:00
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    @Svj0hn I'm studying computational linguistics, and one aspect of the field is sentence-parsing. The reason that MS Word and other grammar-checking software is often wrong is because it's simply a very difficult thing to do. When the number of dependent clauses in your sentence increases, the more often a syntax analyzer will have trouble linking them correctly. It's just the nature of current methods used in syntax analysis, and unfortunately they aren't always as precise as we want them to be. Think of pronouns - humans know what they replace, but it's very difficult for a computer...
    – Chris Cirefice
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 14:58
  • @ChrisCirefice Thank you for the information. Very interesting!
    – Svj0hn
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 20:46
  • "However, if you add the word from in front of accelerometer, then the grammar checker might better understand your sentence." Not only the grammar checker, but me as well.
    – gnasher729
    Commented Aug 10, 2015 at 23:19
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    That's why I try not to use commas for interjections. Also, I prefer Malvolio's use of of.
    – Mazura
    Commented Aug 12, 2015 at 3:16
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Ignore the spell checker. Automated grammar checkers simply don't work very well. The MS Word grammar checker is notorious for both missing actual errors and incorrectly flagging correct grammar as errors.

Your original sentence looks fine.

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Two suggestions:

  • Ignore grammar checkers. If computers were smart enough to understand written speech, they would be smart enough to do everything, and they are not.
  • Be wary of turning every noun into an adjective. It is technically allowed by English grammar, but it can become awkward and confusing. If you were to write "misinterpretations of the accelerometer", people -- and even software -- might understand you better.
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  • Plus one. Accelerometers don't have misinterpretations.
    – Mazura
    Commented Aug 12, 2015 at 3:08
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I might phrase:

Considering how both of the rotation vector sensors seem to have trouble handling vehicular motion, be it from static magnetic fields or accelerometer misinterpretations, using the gyroscope with a custom filtering solution seems like the most compelling alternative.

as

Considering how both of the rotation vector sensors seem to have trouble handling vehicular motion, whether from accelerometer misinterpretations or from static magnetic fields, using the gyroscope with a custom filtering solution seems like the most compelling alternative.

Why?
The swap
When reading long sentences context hints can be useful, the "misinterpretations" being earlier means the reader can think "oh, because of errors introduced by: [list I am currently reading]", so far is that sensors have trouble, this could be accuracy!

I deduced what you meant in the end but I re-read a few times, it's not wrong the way it is but context is important

whether
You could use "whether it be from" and this implies "whether or not it is from [things]" - meaning there could be others, but you've listed a few. If there are just 2 then you are right to use "be it from"

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