Grammarphiles,

 

I wonder if the “they,” meaning both singular and plural, and male and female, will ever present a legal problem:

 

                  Witness: I told the sheriff that  somebody (the word could be regarded as singular since it takes a singular verb, e.g. somebody waits) broke into my house.

 

                 Lawyer: Do you know who it was?

 

                 Witness: I don’t know but they must have had a key.

 

                 Lawyer: Really, so there was more than one? Let me get this straight:  There was just one person or more than one? Are you saying that my client acted with another person or persons?

 

Am I stretching credulity, or do I know lawyers too well to doubt that this scenario would happen?

 

Marshall

 

From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Geoffrey Layton
Sent: Sunday, December 25, 2011 1:46 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: "They" - New 1st Pn. Genderless Singular

 

Just in case anyone doubts that "they" is fast becoming the new default for the genderless third person singular pronoun, here's an example from an email I just received from something called "Spam Arrest":
 

Thank you for verifying your email address with Spam Arrest!

Your email has been forwarded to brian koepf's inbox. All of your
future emails to brian koepf will also be delivered directly into
their inbox.

Far better, I think, than the awkward "him/her, his/hers, he/she" (which is also sexist - why should the masculine precede the feminine?).

 

Geoff Layton

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