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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
How does this sound to native speakers?
This is from one of the reviews I found at IMDB. (BTW, Von Trier's the IDIOTS.)
"WHOEVER decided that American filmgoers could not be exposed to the sight of penises, however, NEEDS to lose THEIR job." (capitalization added by me for emphasis.)
I think, in this sentence, "their" should be "his" or "his or her", because the subject of the sentence is WHOEVER and it should be treated as singular. I know these things happen, (like, "everyone has their opinion", etc.), but
how do average native speakers actually feel when they see this kind of lack of agreement?
1. it sounds sloppy and uneducated
2. will notice the error but it's not a big deal at all
3. Whoever points out this kind of trifles is being overcorrect and should take laxative.
"WHOEVER decided that American filmgoers could not be exposed to the sight of penises, however, NEEDS to lose THEIR job." (capitalization added by me for emphasis.)
I think, in this sentence, "their" should be "his" or "his or her", because the subject of the sentence is WHOEVER and it should be treated as singular. I know these things happen, (like, "everyone has their opinion", etc.), but
how do average native speakers actually feel when they see this kind of lack of agreement?
1. it sounds sloppy and uneducated
2. will notice the error but it's not a big deal at all
3. Whoever points out this kind of trifles is being overcorrect and should take laxative.
Top answer
I think, in this sentence, "their" should be "his" or "his or her", because the subject of the sentence is WHOEVER and it should be treated as singular. ), but how do average native speakers actually feel when they see this kind of lack of agreement? I cannot speak for the "average native speaker" because I haven't met them.
- I think, in this sentence, "their" should be "his" or "his or her", because the subject of the sentence is WHOEVER and it should be treated as singular.
- ), but how do average native speakers actually feel when they see this kind of lack of agreement?
- I cannot speak for the "average native speaker" because I haven't met them.
- English has no gender-neutral third person singular pronouns, so the only option we have is the third person plural - they, them, their, theirs.
- Thus you will frequently see these used to refer to singular antecedents.
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2 Answers
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I think, in this sentence, "their" should be "his" or "his or her", because the subject of the sentence is WHOEVER and it should be treated as singular. I know these things happen, (like, "everyone has their opinion", etc.), but
how do average native speakers actually feel when they see this kind of lack of agreement?
I cannot speak for the "average native speaker" because I haven't m
how do average native speakers actually feel when they see this kind of lack of agreement?
I cannot speak for the "average native speaker" because I haven't m
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I usually go with some combination of numbers 1 and 2 in your list of reactions unless the error is especially egregious. For example, I was watching a TV show the other day and one of the characters used "they" in a situation where the individual being talked about was clearly a woman and should have been referred to as "her" or "she." Still, you can't get too worked up over such things or you ri
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