In Pronouns^x, Genders^x

I'm quoting from Fowler's Modern English Usage. In AmE, 'one' is followed either by another 'one' (or one's) or by a third-person pronoun 'he' or 'she' (or, to avoid gender problems, occasionally 'they'), or by 'his' or 'her' or 'their', whereas in BrE, another 'one' (or one's) follows: (AmE) I...

There is no gender neutral singular pronoun. Instead of saying 'he or she' it is very common to say 'they'.

There is virtually no gender system in English, Reikha. There are the distinguishing singular personal pronouns (he, she, it) and ships are (or were) often referred to as 'she'-- and I think that is about all of our 'system'. Oh yes, some nouns still reflect sex in their suffixes: aviatrix,...

Never 'itself' for a person (unless very young baby you do not know the gender of, and then not in front of the parents1). Himself if the guest is male. Herself if the guest is female.

Marvin A. wrote:Wow, I never realized just how annoying gender neutral language can be. I had to read that three times before understanding.We clearly have need of a gender neutral pronoun for the 3rd-person-singular, other than "one" and its derivatives. That's the reason so many people...

Here's something interesting I found on Wikipedia:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_theyIt is commonly assumed that this usage is due to the singular third-person personal pronouns being either gender-specific (he/she, himself/herself, etc.) or inappropriate for referring to people, such as...

I'm at work and have just received this email, I want to make sure I respond correctly, the form he is talking about will not be changed, we send out thousands of these via email a week, and I'm not sure using the word 'they' is incorrect when refering to one person we do not know the gender...

Their/they is often used as a singular pronoun when you do not know the gender of the person discussed. It's easier than saying 'his or her'. 'Their life is a full one as they have lots of hobbies' instead of 'His or her life is a full one as he or she has lots of hobbies'. It's clear that it...

Thank you very much. Now the problem is trying to figure out a general rule... Maybe these questions could help us find it. My comments are in blue: When is it common to use they? And when is it possible or in use? It is common with generic names, not associated with any stereotype, like...

He, She, and It are ALL third-person pronouns. If the angel was male (if there are male and female angels), then use he.If the angel was female, then use she.If the angel had no gender, then use it. The lack of the third-person, singular is hard when you know it was a person, but not which...