Guest Blogger Arlene Miller, The Grammar Diva, gives us a sneak preview into her recently published second edition of The Best Little Grammar Book Ever!
If you are a member of the nerdy world of grammarians, you know that there are “controversial” grammar topics. One of those is the use of the Oxford comma. Another is the use of the singular they.
I use the Oxford comma, and I don’t use the singular they. But both these issues are up to you. Let’s talk about the singular they.
They is a pronoun. A pronoun is a word that stands in for a noun. We know that they is third person plural. Third person singular pronouns are he, she, and it.
Now how many times have you said, or heard someone say, Everyone is bringing their book to the meeting or something similar? Let’s pick that sentence apart:
This is an issue of agreement: a singular subject has a singular verb form to go with it. And a singular noun or pronoun will have a singular pronoun of the same gender stand in for it. Everyone sounds plural, but it is singular. You can tell because you use a singular verb with it; you wouldn’t say Everyone are bringing. But you would say They are bringing because they is plural. Okay, so we have a singular subject (everyone) and a matching singular verb (is bringing), but what about their book? Their is plural. It doesn’t agree.
Now if we said Everyone on the girls basketball team has her uniform, we would all be happy.
But if everyone refers to a mixture of male and female, or if we simply don’t know, what do we do? Well, we used to just say his or her and be done with it. Actually, before that, we probably used to just say his and be done with it — but that is not politically correct and will not do any longer.
What to do . . . what to do . . .
Well, most everyone just uses their. It is easier to use one word than that clunky old his or her. The English language, so far, doesn’t have a word that can stand in for either a singular male or female.
The sentence Everyone is bringing their book to the meeting is now acceptable and considered correct. Most people use it and have been using it, without knowing or caring, forever. But many people, especially when making a speech, do use he or she, or his or her.
Many grammarians and language purists are horrified by the use — and even more, the acceptance — of the singular they.
My advice is to rewrite your sentence to avoid the issue entirely. It is usually really easy to do: Everyone is bringing a book to the meeting.
Problem solved . . .
Six years ago, I published my first book, The Best Little Grammar Book Ever!. Since then, I have written five more grammar books and a novel. Now, a second edition of that first book, with a new format, a new subtitle, and new information has been published. New information, you might ask? Does grammar change? Yes, slowly, but things do change, although there are always those (me, among them) who would rather stick to the “rules”!
Arlene Miller, The Grammar Diva, is also a blogger, copyeditor, speaker, and former English teacher. She is a member of Redwood Writers and Bay Area Independent Publishers Association, where she has been a featured speaker.
Book Launch for the Second Edition of The Best Little Grammar Book Ever! Speak and Write with Confidence/Avoid Common Mistakes will be in the form of a Grammar Workshop at Petaluma Copperfield’s Books on Saturday, August 6 at 1 p.m.
