Averell  +  261413 Thu, 31 Aug 06 04:20 PM     Dear all, In the following situation: "The customer has two choices: choice 1 and choice 2. If (they / it / he) choose the first one....". The customer here is not a single person but an organization, so, which pronoun should be used? Thanks! Averell Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005 Hanoi New Member 36 Dear, I'm trying to be better in English, so, whenever you see mistakes in my posts, please let me know. Thank you very much! Nouns, Pronouns

	Grammar Geek  +  261420 Thu, 31 Aug 06 04:40 PM Averell, there have been many discussions here quite recently about the use of "they" when the customer is a singular noun, but it has not addressed the specific situation when "the customer" actually refers to an organization. Many people believe that "they" is okay for the plain old singular, so you should be completely safe using "they" for this case, when in fact the customer is made up many people. Grammar Geek Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006 Veteran Member 19,660 Barbara, who answers in American English. My housekeeping skills attest to the truth of the second law of thermodynamics: Left to themselves, things get more and more random! Nouns, Pronouns, Singular Nouns

	Philip  +  261427 Thu, 31 Aug 06 04:48 PM  Averell wrote:     Dear all, In the following situation: "The customer has two choices: choice 1 and choice 2. If (they / it / he) choose the first one....". The customer here is not a single person but an organization, so, which pronoun should be used? Thanks! For my money, the easiest solution is simply to add an 's' to customer and then go ahead and use 'they'. Philip Joined on Thu, Jun 23 2005 Veteran Member 8,737 At reise er at leve! - H. C. Andersen Nouns, Pronouns

	milky  +  261448 Thu, 31 Aug 06 05:37 PM What happened to "she" as a choice? milky Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004 Senior Member 3,149 Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought". Nouns, Pronouns

	Averell  +  261604 Fri, 01 Sep 06 06:13 AM Thank Milky, Phillip! But if I use customers, the readers would think about more than one customer/organization, aren't they? Averell Nouns, Pronouns