It's commonly done that way, nowadays. Heck, I've done it myself, in casual speech. But I'm enough to remember that it isn't "proper", grammatically speaking, though it certainly isn't improper socially speaking. And grammar is what we're talking about here, no? Or maybe not.
--- Bob Bridges, [email protected], cell 336 382-7313 /* It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. -Sir Edmund Hillary */ -----Original Message----- From: IBM Mainframe Discussion List <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Gibney, Dave Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2022 18:37 "They" is properly singular when the singular referent is of unknown or irrelevant gender? > -----Original Message----- > From: Bob Bridges > Sent: Thursday, June 09, 2022 3:30 PM > > Pronouns, grammatically speaking, ~should~ agree with their referent, > which is why "they" (which is plural) is grammatically incorrect when > used with "every person" (which is singular). Calling a tail a leg doesn’t > make it one. > > (Yeah, so I'm a die-hard - so sue me.) > > -----Original Message----- > From: Paul Gilmartin > Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2022 17:13 > > Pronouns agree in number with their antecedents, so not plural. > > --- On Thu, 9 Jun 2022 16:44:59 -0400, Bob Bridges wrote: > >Sure: "They". Is that what you meant? > > >-----Original Message----- > >From: Paul Gilmartin > >Sent: Thursday, June 9, 2022 16:10 > > > >Ok. Example: "Every person does what they wants to." > > > >Do you see anything plural there? ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For IBM-MAIN subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [email protected] with the message: INFO IBM-MAIN
