Bad Kev.
It's "He or she" not "they"
Pah, they never taught me that in school. Instead I've got to hear it 7 years later on an internet chat board. It's a small wonder I did so badly in English.
-Kev
8O Didn't you ever wonder how one person could be "they?"
You'd think so wouldn't you. But then again, I am an idiot.
-Kev
I have always written 'they' in reference to a single person and i have never got anything less than an A in every exam i have taken. I got A*s in both English language and literature!
Moreover, i find it funny that Americans seem to take particular care with grammar and criticise us for it, when you are the ones who botched our language in the first place. 'Thru' instead of 'through' is just one of the ways in which you have massacred the english language. I rest my case.
Sweet heart, it's not an American thing. It's an ENGLISH thing. IT's true of British Grammar too. I know, because I've had this conversation with a limey on another forum.
Don't babble about your A's. That just means your teacher didn't care.
And it's YOU europeans and your txt messages that came up with things like "thru", not Americans. We didn't do that. You did.
Use your head for a minute and think about it. THEY is PLURAL. HE and SHE are singular. It doesn't take a genius to figure it out.
My point was not whether it is correct grammar or not- but simply that it is a perfectly acceptable thing to say. My point was that i find it amusing how Americans insist on correct grammar and place such a huge emphasis on it when so many cannot even write coherently, let alone well.
My As were externally marked by a set of independent examiners who marked 1000s of scripts from across the country, not a teacher dear.
Oh and HAHA for being proven wrong about 'thru'- in NYC i saw signs which said 'thru street' which clearly indicates that your botching of the English language has nothing to do with 'european' text messaging.
Signs also use X-ing. It's short-hand for places where you can't spell out the entire word. That doesn't mean we accept it as proper usage. If someone used "thru" in a document they were writing for me to give to a customer, or in their resume, i'd rip them a new ass.
What is accepted is irrelevant. What is correct is all that matters. People accept a lot of improper usages and spellings.
And most Americans aren't like this. Just anal ones who took a lot of writing classes, like me.
Accepting improper usages is a slippery slope.
Edit @ Lucy - no one stays on topic. It's pointless to try.