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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

its vs. their in business context

Please clarify proper usage here between its or their.

The company is expanding production to improve service to its customers....or their customers.

Thanks
  

Top answer

A company is thought of as many people. Their , even though not necessarily grammatically correct, is much more common than its .

— Philip

  • A company is thought of as many people.
  • Their , even though not necessarily grammatically correct, is much more common than its .
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4 Answers
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A company is thought of as many people. Their, even though not necessarily grammatically correct, is much more common than its.
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PhilipA company is thought of as many people.
I would disagree. In the age of corporate personhood, a company is an individual and typically referred to by the singular pronoun, its.

However, it depends on whether you are referring to the company as an entity and its actions, or if you're referring to a group of the company's workers and their action
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"The company is expanding production to improve service to their customers" is wrong. If you want to use "their" then it would have to be "The company are...".

It's usually said that British English has a greater tendency to treat nouns like "company", "group", "committee", "party" (political), "government", "team", etc. as if they were plural. In British English, cer
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