{"id":1522,"date":"2014-04-28T18:40:13","date_gmt":"2014-04-29T00:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1522"},"modified":"2020-11-25T10:33:06","modified_gmt":"2020-11-25T16:33:06","slug":"when-they-is-a-cop-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/when-they-is-a-cop-out\/","title":{"rendered":"When They<\/em> Is a Cop-out"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ours is a language of traps and pitfalls. Anyone serious about writing in English has to take on problems no one has ever quite solved.<\/p>\n

One of the most obstinate of these, as inescapable as it is confounding, concerns singular pronouns that have plural connotations (everyone<\/em>, nobody<\/em>, anyone<\/em>, somebody<\/em>, etc.).<\/p>\n

Even fine writers on occasion succumb to the temptation of using they<\/em> to refer to a singular pronoun. What would you do with this sentence: Someone left his? her? his or her? their? book on my desk<\/em>. For decades it was customary to say someone left his book<\/em>, the assumption being that his<\/em> really meant his or her<\/em> (in the same way mankind<\/em> comprises both men and women). But that stopped being acceptable in the 1960s\u2014the Women\u2019s Liberation movement was having none of it.<\/p>\n

Many writers nowadays hold their noses and go with his or her<\/em>. It\u2019s hard to find a less elegant solution, but grammatically, someone left his or her book<\/em> does the job; however, someone left their book<\/em>, although taboo to purists, is what you\u2019d most likely hear in conversation.<\/p>\n

Now consider this technically correct sentence: I asked everybody, but he wouldn\u2019t tell me<\/em>. Anybody who would write that must be tone-deaf, perverse, facetious, or fanatical. What good is a \u201ctechnically correct\u201d sentence that is so silly and confusing? Changing it to but he or she wouldn\u2019t tell me <\/em>is hardly an improvement. If you chose to avoid this mess by writing but they wouldn\u2019t tell me<\/em>, it would be hard to blame you. But if good grammar is important, how about I asked everybody, but no one would tell me<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Last November, a West Coast newspaper editorial dealt with the problem this way: \u201cUnder California law, the governor is allowed to choose a replacement for a statewide-elected official who vacates her post midterm.\u201d Fair enough, but though the motive is laudable, the sentence feels somehow forced. Why not replace \u201cvacates her post\u201d with \u201cleaves office.\u201d<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s try to rewrite the following sentences and mollify the curmudgeons \u2026<\/p>\n

\u2022 Read a book to a child. Maybe they\u2019ll do something good with their life.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rewrite<\/strong>: Read a book to a child. Maybe that youngster will accomplish something in life.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2022 If anyone wants to become the next David Letterman, they won\u2019t do it by becoming the last David Letterman<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Rewrite<\/strong>: Anyone who wants to become the next David Letterman won\u2019t do it by becoming the last David Letterman<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u2022 The greatest courage will be required from Angela Merkel and Barack Obama, or each will bequeath to their successors a much more dangerous world.<\/em><\/p>\n

Rewrite<\/strong>: The greatest courage will be required from Angela Merkel and Barack Obama, or they will each bequeath to their successors a much more dangerous world. <\/em><\/p>\n

English scholars say that using they <\/em>to agree with singular pronouns can be traced back at least seven centuries. But that doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s all right to do so. It simply means that there\u2019s nothing new about avoiding challenges when we can take the easy way out.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz<\/strong><\/p>\n

How would you deal with pronoun inconsistencies in these sentences? Compare your solutions with ours in the answers section.<\/p>\n

1. It isn\u2019t feasible for each one to go through arbitration to get their money back.<\/p>\n

2. What if someone asks you what you\u2019re doing at their car?<\/p>\n

3. What we don\u2019t want is for someone to turn their unit into a full-time vacation inn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Pop Quiz Answers<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. It isn\u2019t feasible for each one to go through arbitration to get a full refund.<\/p>\n

2. What if someone asks you, \u201cWhat are you doing at my car?\u201d<\/p>\n

3. What we don\u2019t want is for owners to turn their units into full-time vacation inns.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ours is a language of traps and pitfalls. Anyone serious about writing in English has to take on problems no one has ever quite solved. One of the most obstinate of these, as inescapable as it is confounding, concerns singular pronouns that have plural connotations (everyone, nobody, anyone, somebody, etc.). Even fine writers on occasion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,8,26,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-effective-writing","category-pronouns","category-singular-vs-plural","category-subject-and-verb-agreement"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1522\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}