Grammar Wall of Shame #3: Their

This flyer came in the mail last week:

Oh, Rogers! You're ONE of a kind. Get it?

It's the wrong use of that dreaded their again. And don't try to tell me it's a case of Rogers trying to be gender-neutral; gender has nothing to do with it. You wouldn't say Rogers gives his or her customers the freedom... would you?

In this case, Rogers is the name of one organization, just like Tim Hortons, McDonalds or Sears. In grammar terms, Rogers is considered singular and requires a singular verb and singular pronoun reference.

Top marks on the singular verb: Rogers gives. Just like: he gives, she gives, it gives. Singular subject takes a singular verb.

So why did the writer suddenly decide to use a plural possessive pronoun reference?

The correct sentence is:

Only Rogers gives its customers the freedom to do more.

There's only one Rogers, and it's headed for the Wall of Shame!

Grammar errors that drive me nuts #1: Pronoun agreement

Pronoun agreement.

Oi.

If the teacher is talking, don’t interrupt them.

Nope.

If the teacher is talking, don’t interrupt him or her.

Correct, if somewhat clunky.

In the effort to be gender neutral, too many writers break the bonds of correct usage and resort to using a plural pronoun with a singular noun.

Teacher (singular)

Them (plural)

His or her (singular)

Better to rewrite the sentence:

If the teacher is talking, it’s best not to interrupt.

It’s a simple rule that everyone needs to learn:

Singular noun requires a singular pronoun.

And that brings us to one of those tricky parts of the rule:

Everyone needs their umbrella today.

Nope.

Everyone needs his or her umbrella today.

Indefinite pronouns (such as everyone, everybody, everything, someone, somebody, something etc) are singular and require a singular pronoun.

So,

Everyone is happy. (Not Everyone are happy).

Everything has its place. (Not Everything has their place).

And the trickiest of all the indefinite pronouns in “none”.

None of the cars is washed.

None is washed.

I know, I know. You’re dying to say “None ARE washed.” Well, go ahead. But you would be grammatically incorrect.

It’s a minefield, but you can remember it this way:

Indefinite pronouns that end in “one”, “body” or “thing” are singular. One. Replace the word with a singular pronoun like “her” or “he” or “it” and test it.

For example:

Everyone had their umbrella becomes,

He had their umbrella. (Hunh?)

Pay attention now, and see how often newspapers, broadcasters and the general public get it wrong.

Pronoun agreement. A grammer geek’s dream!

The perils of gender-neutral pronoun use

Trying to teach correct pronoun use to college students is - well - challenging, to say the least. Students often like to blame their confusion on previous teachers.

"But that doesn't sound very polite," is the common response I get when indicating the correct use of subjective and objective pronouns after a preposition.  "My teachers have always corrected me and said to use 'I' instead of 'me'."

The committee gave the prize to Sam and I.  Really?

But of course it should be: The committee gave the prize to Sam and me. An object case pronoun is required after the preposition to.

I'm not buying this "My teacher made me do it" explanation. Teachers have also, apparently, told my students never to start a sentence with the word because. Hmmm. Does the term "subordinate clause" ring a bell, anyone?

Pronoun agreement raises even more issues. A student should always bring their textbook to class.

Their? Since the pronoun is referring back to the word student (its antecedent) which is singular, then the pronoun should also be singular: he or she, or even the clunky he or she. But inexperienced writers tend to think they are being gender-neutral, and therefore more politically correct, in selecting a pronoun that is neither "male" nor "female."

The Globe and Mail showed the way to gender-neutral pronoun use in a recent article published online: One Supreme Court nominee confident at hearing, one struggles.  The article contains the following paragraph:

Each nominee spoke of his humble roots: Judge Karakatsanis as the daughter of Greek immigrants who opened a restaurant; Judge Moldaver as the son of a scrap-metal dealer and a homemaker-mother.

Each nominee is singular. The pronoun reference his is also singular. Correct usage.

But one of the nominees referred to later in the sentence is a "daughter" and one is a "son." The gender of the nominees isn't clear in the opening clause, and his is gender-neutral - at least as far as the English language goes.

The crux: One problem in English grammar, especially in pronoun use, is that current social sensibilities want to make everything "politically correct" (and oh, how I hate that term!). It's grammar, people! These are structural rules to help regulate the construction of sentences, not a comment on social order or male-female equality.

The antecedent each nominee is singular; gender is unspecified. The referring pronoun his is singular; gender is as neutral as English gets. 

One way to avoid this gender-selection issue would have been to revise the clause: Both nominees spoke of their humble roots.

But I love that The Globe took the tricky, singular route, with its built-in gender challenge.

"Each nominee spoke of his humble roots." Perfect!