By Genders, Plurals

Hi, I'm not sure why you group a "thing-word" in with all these "people-words." The plural post-reference for a singular term is only used to avoid the awkward gender issue. In English, things don't have genders (except ships) so the problem disappears. (Ships are...

The important plural in your sentences is "those." People often misuse "their" as a singular, and "who" may be either singular or plural.If you wanted to express the same thought in the singular, you might use the singular "whoever" in place of the plural...

Hi Skrej & New2 - Do we now have a concensus on these three issues? (BTW, Skrej, sympathies on your "glaring error." I know how you feel.)On the first one, I may be missing something, but I didn't take Optilang's post as being in support of the singular...

See my thoughts above on the plural issue. As for the question of 'he' when the gender is unknown, it is indeed very common. In English, if the gender isn't specifically known, it's generally assumed to be male. There is of course a lot of talk about this being sexist language,...

Avangi, I've been paying attention to why he is sometimes used without knowing the gender. Is this common? Or Do you know Anon? By the way, I agree with your interpretation of what the questioner wanted. However, I don't see why the plural is more effective. Any explanation you can offer?...

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...

Yes. Hardly anyone uses that term anymore. There is no singular unless you use employee as the singular. The new term is human resources.CJ

Is the word "personnel" is alwasys plural and gender neutral? (such as police personnel, army personnel)  If so, what is the singular? Is there any other word that can suitably replace personnel?

It's all to do with gender. Cactus and fungus are masculine nouns of which the proper plural ends in -i. Corpus is actually a neuter noun. Hence, the proper plural (nominative case) ends in -a.It's 'corpora' rather than 'corpa' because the genitive singular case...

First off, I'm sorry for that mess. It ignored the format I put it into... I'd like to thank You for such a quick response and correction. I'm not sure about "capturing" either^^... I try to "catch" all streptococcus. Mikrochem is a name. I also wasn't sure...