Oh I'm sure there's a stand-up comic somewhere who will someday address this "observation" and put on a hilarious act about inventing a new word for the singular, non-sexist "their." And "they" will go down in etymology history as the originator of that word.... :)
 

If English can only be fixed by making plural pronouns singular, then we should go back to speaking Latin. Shame on editors who can't stand up for the language, even if it is only English, a language so bastardized and borrow-laden that it's got to be one of the most difficult in the world to learn.
But, do we really want to "fix" it by making one more illogical construction be right?


The easiest way I've found around the so-called his/her/their problem is to delete the "ir" from the end of "their.
"

Classic: The child should ride his bike on the sidewalk.


"Modern" fix: The child should ride their bike on the sidewalk.


My fix: The child should ride the bike on the sidewalk.


Note: This example is easily fixed by making the subject plural, but I shunned that for illustrative purposes.

 

Robert, Latin is exactly the root of such prescriptivism as you espouse. Bishop Robert Lowth decided in the 1700s that any English structure that didn't follow Latin was incorrect, and so saddled us with such ridiculous rules as "no split infinitives" simply because Latin was incapable of splitting them. All languages change over time, and to insist that they shouldn't is just silly.

The use of "their" as a singular has a long history, as the examples I cited for Kevin show. Not all sentences can be "fixed" with your solution, and the resultant fixes often don't sound natural. The following sentence would not be read properly with "the," for instance, if the child in question was actually the teacher's own: "The teacher should remove the child from school."
 

I'm sure I will not be in the majority here. "Their" is no more a singular pronoun than "his" is plural. Lots of incorrect usages exist, just as with other mistakes, such as sportscasters' predilection to use nominative nouns as objects of prepositions, but that doesn't make it right in this century, at least.


I agree that the language evolves, but sometimes it devolves into a crudeness that is not helpful in bringing about understanding.


By and large, it doesn't matter other than for editors and writers to have a few back-and-forths over coffee and oats.


Do you foresee the point where we'll have to say "his/her/their/its"?

Robert<><>
THRIPZ. com
 

Changes such as this come about precisely because they are useful and aid in understanding; and whether you would prefer it or not, "their" can most definitely be used as a singular. Publishers in the US most often use Merriam-Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary, which offers this definition of "their": "2 : his or her : HIS, HER — used with a singular antecedent that is indefinite or that does not specify gender. W.H.Auden* *we shall be pleased to send a free specimen copy T to a friend or relative on receipt of their address— London Calling*"
 

Ah well, I was beaten in this argument long before I was born.


Reminds me, though, of a silly flash fiction I wrote once where a group of people voted in favor of four things.
The last line went:

Therefore, they're for their four.


<><>
 

I agree. Sometimes tradition is good, but a language is an evolving thing, isn't it? Not a big deal at all, and it does sound natural.

 

Interesting. I can't fathom how to use "their" as a singular. Can I have a sample sentence? Can I also share your answer with the English teaching online group that my Brother-In-Law runs? Thanks.


Kevin
 

Hi, Kevin. Matt offered a number of examples on his blog:

Chaucer: "And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame,/They wol come up..." ("The Pardoner's Prologue")

Shakespeare: "And every one to rest themselves betake" ("The Rape of Lucrece")

The King James Bible: "...if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses"

Jane Austen: "I would have everybody marry if they can do it properly" (Mansfield Park)

Thackeray: "A person can't help their birth" (Vanity Fair)

W.H. Auden: "...it is too hideous for anyone in their senses to buy" (Encounter, Feb. 1955)
 

It's interesting that 5 out of the 6 quotes are from writers who lived either in the Victorian or pre-Victorian era. I can understand "their"'s usage as a singular back then. The only 20th century writer is W.H. Auden. His work spanned 1922 through 1973. I'm sure he was influenced by word usage as he experienced it in his youth (post-Victorian or early Edwardian, however you want to look at it).


According to Merriam-Webster, the usage was forced due to the fact that there was no common-gender third person singular pronoun. This issue has been around since the use of Middle English and probably will be around long after we aren't around to argue or agree about it.


Worse than the use of "their" as a singular, is the way the kids (and some adults) use it as a substitute for "they're" or "there".
What's up with that?

Now my brain is way too stimulated for this late at night.
:-)
 

I edit medical textbooks and even in such stuffy tomes, "their" is often used as a singular.


But I started out as a newspaper reporter, and a journalist's basic philosophy is that making your subject understandable to the average reader is the whole point of what we do.


So, if it requires the occasional use of slang or bad grammar to be both informative and entertaining, then so be it. (If a story isn't entertaining, no one will read it after all.
)

Newspapers frequently receive angry letters from curmudgeonly English teachers regarding bad grammar. It's always the English teachers. No one else seems to care.

 

Yes, the problem with "his" is that numerous studies have shown that people definitely do, unsurprisingly, envision a man when that word is used. The pervasive use of it as an indefinite can cause women to feel disenfranchised.