Bringing THEM to whatever planet :-)

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Jorge van den Poem
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Bringing THEM to whatever planet :-)

Post by Jorge van den Poem »

Hy All,

I wonder how I should interpret the text : passenger so and so thanks you for bringing THEM to the desired planet.

I wonder for a long time why it says THEM when I only bring one passenger to the planet it is not that important:-)

Jorge
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Re: Bringing THEM to whatever planet :-)

Post by Disembodied »

English only has one singular gender-neutral third-person pronoun: "it". As this isn't suitable for use when talking about people, it is not uncommon for the various (technically plural) gender-neutral pronouns – "they", "them", "their", etc. – to refer to a singular indefinite noun ...

In other words, "them" is used here because we don't know the passenger's gender and it's less clumsy than saying "he/she". There are those who claim that this is "wrong", but since there's no universally acknowledged objective standard of correct English usage, and since using "they/them" etc. as a singular pronoun has both widespread use in contemporary spoken and written English, combined with lots of venerable examples from literature over hundreds of years, I don't see any validity for this claim. It's just one more peculiarity of English: file it with "chopping a tree down" before you "chop a tree up". ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
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Re: Bringing THEM to whatever planet :-)

Post by DaddyHoggy »

Disembodied wrote:
English only has one singular gender-neutral third-person pronoun: "it". As this isn't suitable for use when talking about people, it is not uncommon for the various (technically plural) gender-neutral pronouns – "they", "them", "their", etc. – to refer to a singular indefinite noun ...

In other words, "them" is used here because we don't know the passenger's gender and it's less clumsy than saying "he/she". There are those who claim that this is "wrong", but since there's no universally acknowledged objective standard of correct English usage, and since using "they/them" etc. as a singular pronoun has both widespread use in contemporary spoken and written English, combined with lots of venerable examples from literature over hundreds of years, I don't see any validity for this claim. It's just one more peculiarity of English: file it with "chopping a tree down" before you "chop a tree up". ;)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
Beautifully put Disembodied.

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flammable and inflammable

and

Raze a building to the ground...
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Jorge van den Poem
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Re: Bringing THEM to whatever planet :-)

Post by Jorge van den Poem »

:wink: Thank you for the English lesson one is never to old to learn :)
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snork
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Re: Bringing THEM to whatever planet :-)

Post by snork »

Beautifully put Disembodied.

+1 :)
Raze a building to the ground...
:lol: I never knew that one, or the word raze at all. wonderful. :lol:
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