When I heard about this yesterday, I officially resigned from the Grammar Nazi League. No point in staying. We are undone.
However. If it's gonna be singular, then the verb needs to comply. Replacing he or she with they as a singular means, for example, "do whatever he or she wants" becomes "do whatever they wants." Otherwise, it's not singular. Live with it. I wonder how the English teachers are dealing with this brilliant idea.
Not sure I agree, because of the singular/plural dichotomy, but the writer of that essay used another of my ear-splitting pet peeves. He said "there's two." No no no no no!!!!! Shriek! There ARE two, or there're two. However, since singular they is supposed to work, I guess I was correct to throw in the towel, grammatically speaking, and call it a day.
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When I heard about this yesterday, I officially resigned from the Grammar Nazi League. No point in staying. We are undone.
However. If it's gonna be singular, then the verb needs to comply. Replacing he or she with they as a singular means, for example, "do whatever he or she wants" becomes "do whatever they wants." Otherwise, it's not singular. Live with it. I wonder how the English teachers are dealing with this brilliant idea.
It's better than the alternatives.
Not sure I agree, because of the singular/plural dichotomy, but the writer of that essay used another of my ear-splitting pet peeves. He said "there's two." No no no no no!!!!! Shriek! There ARE two, or there're two. However, since singular they is supposed to work, I guess I was correct to throw in the towel, grammatically speaking, and call it a day.
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