Is the following sentence grammatically correct?

Question

Re: "Has their mouth drooped?" from http://strokefoundation.com.au/what-is-a-stroke/signs-of-stroke/

I understand the verb "has" does not go with "their". I would say "his or her" or "his/her" They seem to avoid being called sexist and avoid saying what I've just said and use a so-called inclusive possessive adjective. The sentence looks ridiculous to me.

Bryan Montford · Accepted Answer

Grammer has some rules that are effectively "unchanging". And yet, language changes. It's unavoidable. Any of the above is not a grammatical issue so much as an effect of political posturing. When I'm dealing with a (still) living persons life, efficiency, conciseness, and accuracy are all I'm concerned with. Political correctness and sensitivities be damned. I'll worry about a hurt feeling later, if there is a later for the person in peril. The dead never worry about gender neutrality and/or equality. Not one bit in my experience.

Garrisonaw · Answer

Grammatically, "Has his mouth drooped?" is correct. "Her" is always feminine, but "his" can be either masculine or gender-neutral. However, since "their" is plural, "Has their mouth drooped?" is always incorrect (unless by some chance a pair of conjoined twins both share one mouth).

You can use "his or her" if you're really concerned about offending someone, but it is substandard, and as Bryan pointed out, the shift from using "his" to using "his/her" or "their" has nothing to do with grammar, and everything to do with being 'politically correct."

AlpheccaStars · Answer

healerI understand the verb "has" does not go with "their". I would say "his or her" or "his/her" They seem to avoid being called sexist and avoid saying what I've just said and use a so-called inclusive possessive adjective. The sentence looks ridiculous to me.

The problem is not the verb, but the noun, "mouth". English lacks a singular gender-neutral pronoun (in any of the grammatical cases).

The author had this choice:
"Has his or her mouth drooped?"

But then repeating this "his or her" or "his/her" for every symptom or description gets really old and stylistically tedious.
In modern English "their," "they," and "them" are accepted substitutes to reference a singular antecedent.
See definition #2:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/their?r=66

In particular, read the second Usage note:
Long before the use of generic he was condemned as sexist, the pronouns they, their, and them were used in educated speech and in all but the most formal writing to refer to indefinite pronouns and to singular nouns of general personal reference, probably because such nouns are often not felt to be exclusively singular: If anyone calls, tell them I'll be back at six. Everyone began looking for their books at once. Such use is not a recent development, nor is it a mark of ignorance.

Healer · Answer

Thanks guys and gals!

I apologize for being late in response as I didn't receive any notification. I have since changed the settings.

English language is in some cases pretty tricky. There are rules but if many go contrary to the rules, new rules or exceptions arise. Perhaps English language is still better than German, Italian or Frenchs and so on where nouns have genders as well.

The examples of "If anyone calls, tell them I'll be back at six." and "Everyone began looking for their books at once" given by AlpheccaStars do not deviate too much from the rules hence more acceptable though they still do somewhat deviate as I have seen many examples of that.

However the words of "has their mouth" coming together one after the other really jar my sensitivites because I had never expected "has" goes with "their" and "their" goes with "mouth" while "their" usually or normally implies more than one person. Of course, in the circumstance it actually refers to one single person only and that's where the pecularity comes about.

I suppose most people would always try to justify what an authority has to say.

Is the following sentence grammatically correct?

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