Nice! I suppose we could come with a rule that says to make sure PC language is left at the courthouse door (the passive voice is another way to avoid gender problems!). 

Geoff Layton
 Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:51:33 +0000
From: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: "They" - New 1st Pn. Genderless Singular
To: [log in to unmask]











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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