{"id":1947,"date":"2015-06-09T16:12:38","date_gmt":"2015-06-09T22:12:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/?p=1947"},"modified":"2021-01-05T12:52:04","modified_gmt":"2021-01-05T18:52:04","slug":"singular-they-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/pronouns\/singular-they-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"Singular They<\/em> Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite curmudgeons\u2019 howls, the singular they<\/em> has become respectable. Many editors at the recent American Copy Editors Society conference declared themselves open to the once-frowned-upon use of they<\/em> with a singular antecedent.<\/p>\n

English is an often imperfect language that makes the best of its shortcomings. We say \u201cnone are<\/em>,\u201d despite the prominent one<\/em> in none<\/em>, because English has no other pronoun meaning \u201cnot any.\u201d<\/p>\n

And although the relative pronoun who<\/em> can refer only to humans, its possessive form, whose<\/em>, is routinely used with animals: a dog whose collar fell off<\/em> and inanimate objects: a bridge whose view is unsurpassed.<\/em> Not even the strictest language purist denounces the nonhuman whose<\/em> because English lacks a corresponding word that refers to creatures and things.<\/p>\n

Similarly, as the writer Ben Zimmer notes, \u201cEnglish sorely lacks a gender-neutral singular third-person pronoun, and \u2018they\u2019 has for centuries been pressed into service for that purpose.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last week we acknowledged the historical validity of they<\/em> and its variants in sentences like \u201cIt\u2019s enough to drive anyone out of their senses.\u201d Then a reader informed us that singular they<\/em> has become a practical way of addressing or describing those in the LGBT community who prefer they<\/em> to masculine or feminine pronouns.<\/p>\n

So history and contemporary life both make a credible case for singular they<\/em>. But now, with the taboo lifting, expect unintended consequences. Writers will become increasingly sloppy with pronoun-antecedent agreement. Here is a sentence from a recent article by a professional journalist: \u201cNeither Indiana nor any other state has described their religious-rights laws as discriminatory.\u201d Change \u201ctheir\u201d to \u201cits.\u201d No gender issues there; the writer simply botched it.<\/p>\n

When an antecedent includes or implies both sexes, old-school types sometimes must resort to the clumsy phrase he or she<\/em>, himself or herself<\/em>, etc.: Every student has done his or her homework<\/em>. Writers despise he or she<\/em>, which may be barely tolerable once but becomes preposterous beyond that: Every student has done his or her homework, and he or she will be expected to discuss his or her work in class<\/em>. That hopeless sentence requires a complete rewrite.<\/p>\n

An obstinate cadre of traditionalists will always resist singular they<\/em>. \u201cThe solution here,\u201d says Theodore M. Bernstein in The Careful Writer,<\/em> \u201cis to recognize the imperfection of the language and modify the wording.\u201d Bryan A. Garner\u2019s Dictionary of Modern American Usage<\/em> concurs. Noting that singular they<\/em> \u201csets many literate Americans\u2019 teeth on edge,\u201d Garner says \u201cthe only course that does not risk damaging one\u2019s credibility is to write around the problem.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even with the recent acceptance of singular they<\/em>, we suggest using it sparingly, if at all. When confronted with a sentence like Every student has done their homework<\/em>, you only need a moment to come up with The students have each done their homework<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

If you have misgivings about the singular they<\/em>, try rewriting these sentences culled from the print media. Our suggestions are below.<\/p>\n

1. Everyone involved was doing what they thought was right.<\/p>\n

2. Any parent who has enrolled their child knows what to expect.<\/p>\n

3. Sometimes in this business, when you come across a comedy legend, they come off as jaded.<\/p>\n

4. Even if a hacker has your password, they won\u2019t have the code.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

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

1. All those involved were doing what they thought was right.<\/p>\n

2. Any parent who has enrolled a child knows what to expect.<\/p>\n

3. Sometimes in this business you come across a comedy legend who comes off as jaded.<\/p>\n

4. Even a hacker who has your password won\u2019t have the code.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite curmudgeons\u2019 howls, the singular they has become respectable. Many editors at the recent American Copy Editors Society conference declared themselves open to the once-frowned-upon use of they with a singular antecedent. English is an often imperfect language that makes the best of its shortcomings. We say \u201cnone are,\u201d despite the prominent one in none, […]<\/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-1947","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\/1947"}],"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=1947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1947\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}