Expression: "Nobody said he didn't want cake."

[Tom]

Hi

Would you say that the following sentences are correct and natural and carry different meanings?

[Haihao]

Very different.

[Jamie (K)]

"Nobody said he wanted cake." = It looks like nobody wants cake, so don't serve any.

"Nobody said he didn't want cake." = I didn't hear anyone object to having cake, so it's okay to serve it.

[Lost_Soul]

I think you need to use the gender-neutral pronoun "they" instead of "he"

[Daemon99]

[Jamie (K)]

I AM a native speaker, and that's how I interpret it.

[Daemon99]

[Jamie (K)]

"Nobody said they wanted cake," is spoken colloquial English, but it's still not considered proper written grammar in North America, so I was old fashioned and used "he" for the generic pronoun.

[Yankee]

[Haihao]

And without context, 'nobody' and 'he' could be different parties. e.g. Amy told the waitress that nobody said he didn't want cake after she asked if somebody had said Jamie didn't want cake. So I didn't see any necessity to take the risk of substituting he for they.

[Barb_D]

In the waitress example above, "he" is referring to a specific person: Jamie. Naturally, you would not substitute "they" for Jamie.

I too read the "he" as referring to a specific person. I disagree that "they" is not acceptable as a gender-neutral singular pronoun in North Amerca these days. In fact, it is so accepted that when I saw "he" (unless I knew that all the people present were male), I assumed a particular person was being referred to.

[SiCantikManis]

For some reason when I read these sentences, I imagined they were referred to a group of men. In my opinion it wil be less confusing, or will not be confusing at all if people just use "they".
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[Jamie (K)]