0
Hanuman_2000 Posted 22 years ago
Grammar

A fool

Sir,

"A fool and his money soon parted."

I have doubt about "his" because "a fool" can be any "HE or She";

So I think we could write it

"A fool and his/her money soon parted".

Please help me.

Thanks.
  

Top answer

" This is an old English saying, which tells us that if we are foolish, we will easily loose money. Maybe what you thought is that a woman also could be a fool. " Your "his/her" is not wrong but "their" is more natural especially in speach.

— Paco2004

  • " This is an old English saying, which tells us that if we are foolish, we will easily loose money.
  • Maybe what you thought is that a woman also could be a fool.
  • " Your "his/her" is not wrong but "their" is more natural especially in speach.
  • Nowadays "they" (their, them) is mostly used as the 3rd singular personal pronoun to avoid linguistic gender problems.
  • You can expect our teachers will give better answers.
Free · every Monday

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

New words, one handy idiom, and a 2-minute quiz — delivered to your inbox to keep your streak alive.

3 Answers
0
"A fool and his money soon part." This is an old English saying, which tells us that if we are foolish, we will easily loose money. Maybe what you thought is that a woman also could be a fool. In that case you can say "A fool and their money soon part." Your "his/her" is not wrong but "their" is more natural especially in speach. Nowadays "they" (their, them) is mostly used as the 3rd si
0
0
Hello H2K, hello Paco

The version I know is:

'A fool and his money are easily parted.'

'His' is still current for 'his/her', though frowned upon in some quarters. Old sayings are rarely updated.

(I hope we'll never hear 'a miss is as good as 8/5 km', or 'give him 2.54cm and he'll take 39'.)

MrP
0
0
Well, here's another (the way I've always heard it):

"A fool and his money are soon parted."
This is an old English saying, which tells us that if we are foolish, we will easily loose money.


Don't you mean:

... which tells us that if we are foolish and we are English, we ...

Can the sayings of one culture apply to the pe
0

Related Questions