Monday, August 27, 2012

pronouns - Can "his/her" be replaced by "his"?



Yesterday, I asked this question on Web Apps:




If a Facebook user dies, what happens
to the account?





Actually, I wanted to ask it this way:




If a Facebook user dies, what happens
to his/her account?




I chose the easy way and used the instead of his/her. Could I use just his in this case?:





If a Facebook user dies, what happens
to his account?




What would you recommend for similar cases? Which pronoun is more appropriate to be used?


Answer



You can use the singular “their”: “what happens to their account”.



While is was regarded with rather less than more favorability in the past by style guides, it is gender-neutral and, as such, regains popularity.


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