9. Using “they” as a singular pronoun: I’ve seen more than a few kids’ eyes go wide when you tell them about this particular SAT/ACT rule: when referring to an individual of indeterminate gender, you must use “he or she,” “him or her,” and “his or hers” as your pronouns. But really, this is a style choice. English is imperfect in this regard; we don’t have a singular, generic, gender-netural pronoun that can be applied to a human being. (We don’t, in general, use “it” to describe a person unless we are deliberately dehumanizing that person.) In spoken English, many of us use “they” to fill the void as an all-purpose neuter pronoun.
Admittedly, many grammarians don’t love “they” as a singular pronoun. Fogarty admits that she tends to rewrite her sentences to avoid the need for a singular generic pronoun, but that she will use “he or she” in formal writing. O’Conner goes so far as to call it a mistake (for now), though she notes that in earlier centuries, “they” was used as a singular pronoun. (William Shakespeare used “they” as a singular pronoun, but we’re not all Shakespeare.) But some modern English usage guides do list “they” as an acceptable singular pronoun and, in the name of evolving language, Fogarty actually recommends that people writing style guides make “they” an acceptable singular (but only if they are the sorts of people who can get away with such a thing). And with some people who sit outside the gender binary taking “they” are their own preferred personal pronoun, we may be seeing an increasing acceptance (or rather re-acceptance) of “they” as a singular pronoun.
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