After I posted this morning about Commonly Botched Idioms: To Each His Own, I received an e-mail from Doug:
Quick rule:Hi Snarky! One of Honda Civic's ad campaigns also makes this mistake. As seen in this video, the tagline is 'To Each Their Own.'
- 'Each' is singular, so the possessive pronoun must also be the singular 'his', rather than the plural 'their'. Therefore, the expression is 'to each his own'.
Is this, perhaps, an example of using 'their' as a gender-neutral pronoun and therefore correct in this context?
ReplyDeleteYep.
Delete"Their" is plural. If you want to use a singular neuter pronoun, that would be "it."
DeleteReally happy to see this reply. I'm glad we (someone out in this world) were thinking about this in 2012.
DeleteI'm surprised your post mentioned nothing of sexist language. If you want to get technical (and, based on the content of your blog, you do), it should be, "To each his or her own."
ReplyDeletehttp://grammar.yourdictionary.com/style-and-usage/sexist-language.html
The "quick rule" is wrong. Meghann Smith is correct. In this sentence, "their" is not used as a plural; it is used as a gender-neutral singular form. That is a perfectly acceptable usage.
ReplyDeleteI love seeing linguistic prescriptivists slip up when they state their "rules".
It's remarkable how other languages don't worry so much about being "gender neutral". Our linguistic tradition is using "his" in such an instance.
DeleteUsing "their" is incorrect, excepting the few who have more interest in being politically correct over grammatically correct. Others who opt for the "his or her" bit are grammatically correct but sound very contrived and cumbersome in speech and writing.
"They" has been used in the singular for centuries now. This is not a new thing.
Deletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they#Usage
Thanks for Quick rule❗
ReplyDeleteThere has been every possible stance and probabilities have been mentioned here which will further allow students to bring around all those possible details which they must needed to observe.
ReplyDeleteTomato tomato. His own her own their own. Who cares. Dorks.
ReplyDeleteYOU! ROCK! ;D
Delete👍 thanks man
DeleteOh Celeste, bless you, that cracked me up. I was reading this post with such committed interest and then got to your comment and spat out my coffee! Hilarious... I guess I'm a dork!
ReplyDeleteAll the time I found something new information from your blogs. Thanks for sharing .
ReplyDeletehey... Great work . I feel nice while i reading blog .You are doing well. Keep it up. We will also provide QuickBooks Customer Service Contact us +1 877-751-0742 for instant help.
As someone for whom English is his second language, I see three problems with English:
ReplyDelete1) too many prepositions (i.e. on, in, at, etc.). I'm always wondering which one is the right one to use. Ex: I can be on a plane, but I'm in a car. Am I in a bus or on a bus? Why not just use one preposition for all of them and reserve "in" to describe being inside something and "on" for being on top of something? (I would never want to ride on top of an airplane).
2) Lack of a second person plural. You end up saying "you all" (but that sounds weird comming from a hispanic guy) or "you guys", which is used a lot in the Midwest, but that is kind of sexist.
3) lack of a gender neutral third person possesive pronoun. So, you would have to say: " to each his or her own" or should you say: "to each her or his own"?
Just a humble observation (no criticism intended).
The Best Apps and Games For Android ·https://apkmodule.com/big-rig-racing-mod-apk/
ReplyDeletekevin durant
ReplyDeleteyeezy boost 350 v2
off white jordan 1
fear of god hoodie
off white jordan
supreme outlet
jordan shoes
Jordan Travis Scott
pg 4
bape