Grammar help please...

[Steven Wain]

Should "personnel au sol" (ground staff) have the definite article "le" or "les"?

Also to say "for fear that there may be competition from other companies.", would "de craint qu'il puisse y avoir..." be correct? I know "de craint" should be followed by subjunctive, but should I then use conditional or future tense for avoir or neither?

Thanks so much

Steven

[Vicky]

«Le personnel au sol» because «personnel» is masculine singular.

«De crainte qu'il puisse y avoir...»

Indeed, the word you're looking for is «crainte». You could also use the expression «De peur que».

[Neil Coffey]

In business use you'll sometimes see personnels used in the plural, but it's usually singular.

For your second phrase, you could think about just saying De crainte qu'il n'existe/qu'il n'y ait..., although your version is fine.

[Steven Wain]

Thanks again.