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Topic: Grammar
"Their" as a pronoun instead of singular "he" and "she"What's your reaction to seeing and/or using non-gendered their in singular context instead of he or she, and do you find it preferable to s/he and her/im? [It's quite common in British English but still lagging in American English.]
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Teacher
Community / Jr. College
Distinguished Educator, Expert, Instructor, Dickens, The Bard, Churchill, Einstein
It still does seem a little strange to me, but it has come to seem less strange than simply seeing people use "he" the way things were in the past. Sure, it's grammatically incorrect and...
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Teacher
High School - 12th Grade
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I don't consider it specifically correct grammatically, but I agree with pohnpei in that it solves the gender equity problem. It sure solves the problem of having to use the slash: "his/her,"...
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I have no problem using "s/he" - and do so when needed! "His/her" is harder to shorten, unfortunately.
I'm a bit of a fanatic about trying to make my grammar both correct and inclusive....
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Teacher
High School - 12th Grade
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I just find "their" highly overused. It leads to sentences like: "They didn't have their property rights so they sued them for their money" and lets students off the hook for being specific. ...
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Teacher
College - Freshman
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Their in the singular goes against many years of conditioning and training in grammar--it is anathema to any traditionalist!
The way to avoid the he/she issue is to make general...
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Teacher
High School - 12th Grade
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I use the pronoun consistently when referring to an unbiased gender in writing. Historically, the pronoun is meant to be used to represent the plural, but given that gender equality in writing...
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Teacher
High School - 12th Grade
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It all depends on my audience. In formal, scholarly writing, I generally use "he" rather than the unwieldy, cumbersome "s/he." For informal writing, I use "their" because it's common and easily...
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i have noticed a recent trend of alternating in academic writing and in some kinds of non-fiction books for general audiences. For example, the author will write a paragraph using a female to...
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Have you ever noticed how delightfully incongrous it sounds when someone uses exclusively 'she' for the imagined averaged person. You do hear/read it sometimes.
For example a sentence like, "I think the average user of Microsoft's new broswer will find she has many more functions compared to the previous version. She's gonna love the new bookmark system etc etc"
I quite like this. Why couldn't we have a situation where we are free to refer to the general person as 'he' or 'she' as we choose. Rather than this clunky and/or stuff. I believe the old system (only 'he') was horribly sexist and needs to be challenged and changed. Substituting 'he' for 'she' is a great way to make your point that our language is loaded with bias.
Call me old fashioned, but I cringe when I hear anyone mix singular and plural pronouns, including the use of "their" for a single person. Antiquated and cumbersome as it may be, I insist...
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Teacher
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When I first encountered "their" in singular usage, it was some years ago on my daughter's university information. She was preparing to study for her master degree at The University of...
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Teacher
High School - 12th Grade
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It's easy to fall into the trap of "their" when "her" or "his" is appropriate. I generally will write his/her the first time and then just settle in with "his." This is also what I do...
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Teacher
High School - 12th Grade
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I'm still quite young to this profession but I consider myself old fashioned when it comes to improper pronoun usage. The only time I accept the use of "their" over he or she is verbally, when...
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Teacher
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It's easy to fall into the trap of "their" when "her" or "his" is appropriate. I generally will write his/her the first time and then just settle in with "his." This is...
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I agree with beefheart. I think the best practice for an essay or article is to use "he" or "she" in a random order in different segments of the essay, thereby avoiding the use of "their",...
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