* Tiger12506 (Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:23:00 -0500) > > Despite what your english teacher might have tried to make you > > believe, they were wrong about the lack of a neutral in english. > > Just like ending sentences with prepositions has always been done > > and always will be done, the use of "they" to refer to someone of > > indeterminate gender has been well and alive for hundreds of > > years. > > > > The fact you think it isn't okay is because some english teacher > > sold you a line of crap about prescriptive grammar rules that > > don't actually hold true in actual writing. Many grammar books try > > to make the language into what it is not, rather than describing > > it as it is. > > No. I form my own opinions and do not believe individuals such as my > english "teachers" unless I truly believe that each one is correct. > Each of my english teachers will not tell you to use "they" or even > the masculine, instead prefering the "proper" way to be "his/her", > and equivalent forms. I personally believe this to be a waste of > time, and efficiency is one of my primary motivators. Therefore, for > space and time I use "he" for an unknown.
That's common English usage: 'In languages with a masculine and feminine gender (and possibly a neuter), the masculine is usually employed by default to refer to persons of unknown gender. This is still done sometimes in English, although an alternative is to use the singular "they".'[1] > Proper english (as it is from my viewpoint) would be to restructure > the sentence so that it uses "one" in that instance. (My english > teachers would gasp at this) This makes the most logical sense. For > more than one person of unknown gender, English uses "everyone". So > for one person of unknown gender, English uses "one". No (see above). > "They" does not match plurality. Using "they" as you describe it > would mean that we should be forming sentences such as "They works" > "They bakes" "They codes in python". Clearly this does not sound > correct because the word "they" is meant to be used as a plural > pronoun only. No (see above). Thorsten [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender#Indeterminate_gender _______________________________________________ Tutor maillist - Tutor@python.org http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/tutor
