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Pastimes : SI Grammar and Spelling Lab -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Jack Clarke who wrote (1253)	5/7/1998 10:48:00 AM
From: jbe	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 4710

Although the use of "their" with a single antecedent may now be considered acceptable, it still irritates the devil out of me, old fogey that I am! There are ways around it. One is the use of another old fogeyism - "one....one's." But many writers (sometimes very good ones otherwise) spoil it by employing "one...his." Grrrr! Many people regard the use of "his" with a gender-neutral antecedent (singular pronomials like "somebody") as "sexist" ("Somebody has left his book here"). So they strike a blow for political correctness by writing: "Somebody has left her book here." Although I am a female, this sounds just plain silly to me. However, the alternative - "Somebody has left their book here" -- sounds just plain awful to me. I won't give in to "their"! If worst comes to worst, I will (and do) use the admittedly awkward "his or her" ("Somebody has left his or her book here"). As Fowler points out, one of the major deficiencies of English (yes, English does have deficiencies!) is the lack of a possessive adjective (like "son" in French, "su" in Spanish, "svoi" in Russian, etc.) to take care of "his or her" situations. Imagine if we could say: "Somebody has left one's book here." Hmmmm. jbe