The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #33767   Message #452205
Posted By: Whistle Stop
30-Apr-01 - 01:03 PM
Thread Name: BS: Knickers in a Twist
Subject: RE: BS: Knickers in a Twist
So it mainly comes down to bad driving and bad grammar, as far as I can tell. I wasn't going to post my bad grammar offering, thinking it was too petty. But now I see that everyone else is as petty as I am. So...

I really hate it when people decide to pluralize a third-person singular personal pronoun in order to be gender-neutral. Example: "If your child lives more than a mile from school, they will have to take the bus." Currently, correct usage dictates that we default to "he" in these cases. If we don't like that (because it's sexist, or whatever), we have the option of inventing and promoting another word, or of rephrasing the statement so a pronoun isn't needed (i.e., "All children who live more than a mile from school must take the bus."). But swapping the singular for the plural is not the way to go. I find this really grating, perhaps because it seems to be catching on everywhere.