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

To: jbe who wrote (1259)	5/7/1998 8:20:00 PM
From: Jack Clarke	Respond to of 4711

Jbe, I'm with you, although I did post to Claude that I am beginning to accept "their" in the incorrect use you dislike. I have heard of people getting around the "rule" in a number of ways. I don't see anything wrong is females using the female singular, but again, I agree with you that the masculine encompasses the feminine. There are probably many examples in English of what we consider "incorrect" use of "their." I wonder what Fowler says? I'm too tired to look it up now. lack of a possessive adjective (like "son" in French, Yes, the French make it easy by having the possessive pronoun agree in gender with the thing possessed rather than the possessor. Also they have no political qualms about using the masculine form (ils) for a group of girls if there is a single boy among them. At least that's what a native French speaker told me some years ago. Jack