No More He Said, She Said...I Mean, He/She Said
English grammar can be annoying AF.
Take, for instance, sentences referring to general people. "When < general person > goes to the store, < general pronoun > must buy zebra-striped chihuahuas. No, the problematic part of that sentence ISN'T the questionable hybrid dogs. It's that you have to write it one of a number of (highly annoying) ways.The politically correct way...
When he/she goes to the store, that person must buy zebra-striped chihuahuas.
The pretentious asshole version...
When one goes to the store, said person must buy zebra-striped chihuahuas.
The linguistically sexist route... you little...
When a person goes to the store, he must buy a zebra-striped chihuahua.
Quartz put it so well. "People of a certain age learned funny rules about writing in English. Like don’t use like. And never start a sentence with because, and, or but. Because grammar."
Because, grammar.
Ain't that the truth. Like a child asking his/her parent, "why?" Grammar commands, "Because I said so." Shut. Down. Well, I have some FAB news for you. As of May, 2017 the American Copy Editors Society (ACES) officially declared there is now a gender-neutral, singular, and plural pronoun.
Wait, I can ditch the "he/she," and just use ONE pronoun that means both?
Jumping jellyfish! Yes, you can. Hashtag: pronoun empowerment. Now, you can write the aforementioned sentence like this:When a person goes to the store, they must buy zebra-spotted chihuahuas.
NO MORE clumsy, awkward, ridiculous sentences—HOORAY!
Grammar geek, out! (drops mic)
Oh my gosh this is hilarious! Thank you for the great laugh!
hilarious.
I use the word 'he'
too bad ..so said...I'm NOT PC.
I always use "she" and correct punctuation when quoting words. lol
I lived in another country for 12 years, and the national language had one word that represented both he and she.
It was great if you are concerned about political correctness, but it created a lot of confusion as my wife and I were learning the language.
Ha! I've been using they in speech for quite some time now. As you mentioned using one; or One is quite pretentious, and I can never bring myself to use it. I type it out, and then delete; hmmmm.
Then sometimes, I use the scientific style, of mixing my hes and shes, but that just gets bloody confusing!
And another thing, why not start a sentence with and? We do in spoken speech; so why not in written?
Anyways, speaking of linguistic sexism, I didn't realise how casually sexist my language was until I had a daughter. For instance, all animals, or inanimate objects where automatically he. Which takes a real seismic shift in thinking to move away from...
'nother great post; keep em coming :-)
Cg
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Hey, are you guys in Vegas. I am here with @surfermarly and we could meetup