By Constructions, Genders

If a student is behind his/her/their class, he/she/he or she/they will normally do bad in the exams. If a student is behind his/her class, he/she will normally do badly in the exams. If a student is behind his or her class, he or she will normally do badly in the exams. If a student is behind...

If this sentence originated in the U.S., then failure to make the number (that is, the singularity or plurality) of the pronoun (in this case "their") match the number of the noun (in this case ''seller") is the result of what is termed "political correctness."...

THE PLACE OF WOMEN IN OUR SOCIETY Human beings are social animals who live together and by their nature can’t isolate themselves in the place where they dwell which is called society. The society whose inhabitants we are is of two types: the rural society and the urban society. By gender, a...

Pravinth wrote: Thanks i have one more ... become/becomes so it must be "He will become ...." and not "He will becomes...." or just "He will be ...." what is the differenec?? Please Hi Pravinth, "He will become.." is the valid construction, and "will becomes" & "will be...

CalifJim wrote:Is there anything to be gained by researching this question from a generational point of view?My father used "If ... should" quite often. I never use it. Something from your posts, (but just an inkling), Mr. P., tells me that the same kind of thing may have happened in Britain. ...

Good questions Rishonly... (1) Is 'often wondered' a wrong construction? It's not wrong but it implies that 'wondering' was in the past and now you no longer 'wonder.' (2) Reason for 'might attend only fewer phone calls' being wrong? Actually there is only a very subtle difference, if at all. ...

Hi Danyoo, Thanks for the correction. Would you mind explaining the reason for following mistakes? (1) Is 'often wondered' a wrong construction? (2) Reason for 'might attend only fewer phone calls' being wrong? (3) Reason for using 'may attend' in the first sentence and 'might get' in the...

My niece, who is expecting a baby, raised the following question regarding the choice between "the baby's sex" and "the baby's gender" and I told her I would post the question here. I don't have strong feelings about it one way or the other, but I probably tend to use "gender" just because the...

http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/1994_01_24_thenewrepublic.html Probably no "grammatical error" has received as much scorn as "misuse" of pronoun case inside conjunctions (phrases with two parts joined by is an object that requires object case, it does not mean that is an object...

Hello everybody, How can I talk about neutral inanimate objects and abstract nouns? First, I read about “possessive constructions” to find out what types of nouns can possess. Here is what I read online from “The American Heritage® Book of English Usage. A Practical and Authoritative Guide to...