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A few questions about English grammar



 
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ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
Incorrect sentences: The man speaking to Vickey yesterday... | meaning of "defending champions"
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A few questions about English grammar Wed Apr 25, 2007 15:50 pm  A few questions about English grammar
 

Hi again everyone!

I have two grammatical questions that have been preying on my mind for ages! Could anybody save me from this on-going frustation please? (:
I will give my questions in filling-in-the-gap form...

1) Someone is getting ? bad news.
choice a: his/her b: their

2) Everybody is good in ? own way.
choice a: his/her b: their

3) Today is January 5.
choice a: fifth b: five

Thank you very much for your invaluable help! I appreciate it (:
Bangkeaw
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A few questions about English grammar Wed Apr 25, 2007 16:08 pm  A few questions about English grammar
 

I'd go with:

1. his/her (it is singular, matching "someone" -- but pick one, either "his" or "her". Since we don't have a unisex singular pronoun, we have to either offend the more sensitive among us... or match plural with singular, which is illogical.

2. Same as 1 -- singular matches singular

(1/2: "Someone" and "everybody" are both singular.)

-------

I'm not sure about #3. If you're not using the numeral form, I'd opt for "fifth".
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A few questions about English grammar Thu Apr 26, 2007 7:11 am  A few questions about English grammar
 

Thanks a lot Prezbucky! (: It has besome as clear as a bell to me now
Bangkeaw
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Location: BKK Thailand

A few questions about English grammar Thu Apr 26, 2007 13:47 pm  A few questions about English grammar
 

'Their' is the accepted singular gender-neutral pronoun in spoken English, and has been for ages. From the American Heritage Dictionary:

The use of the third-person plural pronoun 'they' to refer to a singular noun or pronoun is attested as early as 1300, and many admired writers have used 'they', 'them', 'themselves', and 'their' to refer to singular nouns such as one, a person, an individual, and each. W.M. Thackeray, for example, wrote in Vanity Fair in 1848, “A person can't help their birth,” and more recent writers such as George Bernard Shaw and Anne Morrow Lindbergh have also used this construction, in sentences such as “To do a person in means to kill them,” and “When you love someone you do not love them all the time.” The practice is widespread and can be found in such mainstream publications as the Christian Science Monitor, Discover, and the Washington Post. The usage is so common in speech that it generally passes unnoticed.
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Incorrect sentences: The man speaking to Vickey yesterday... | meaning of "defending champions"
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