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Subject:RE: he/she -- they From:"Halter, Meg" <HalterMC -at- navair -dot- navy -dot- mil> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Mon, 29 Nov 1999 15:15:37 -0800
Oh no! That would not be a good solution.
I find that I really miss having separate words for second person singular
and second person plural. (After years in Spain, I'd become accustomed to
usted and ustedes and vosotros.) To compensate I've adopted "you all" to
give me unambiguous second person plural, even though it has folksy
connotations that I don't always want. It would be a shame to extend that
vagueness to the third person, as well.
-- Meg
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christine Pellar-Kosbar [SMTP:chrispk -at- merit -dot- edu]
>
> He/she questioners,
>
> A better solution would be to allow both "he" and "she" to fade into
> obscurity
> and use "they." When we speak, we often use "they" or "their" to avoid
> the
> he/she issue. Using "they" in our writing would be less confusing than
> any of
> the alternatives presented. We went from "thee" to "you," dropping our
> second
> person singular and expanding the use of the plural, why not do the same
> with
> "he" and "she" and just use "they"?
>
> Christine Pellar-Kosbar
