Which one is correct?

Each of the customers wanted his/their receipt.
Either Jane or Mary can bring her/their guitar.
Not one of the students had his/their class.
Neither of the employees remembered his/their password.

Answers

isthmus_x

18 May 2021

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@maria_borikova

Their x 4

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isthmus_x

18 May 2021

English (UK)
English (US)

@maria_borikova

Their x 4

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maria_borikova

18 May 2021

Russian

@isthmus_x thank you very much! I took the sentences from the grammar book, the exercise is full of sentences with ‘’either .. or’’, ‘’neither .. nor’’, ‘’each of ..’’ and pronoun agreement. So, do you agree them with plural pronouns?

OldGeezer

18 May 2021

English (US)
English (UK)

Each of the customers wanted their receipt.
Either Jane or Mary can bring her guitar.
Not one of the students had their class.
Neither of the employees remembered their password.

In all of these sentences "their" or "her" is singular. Let me explain.

Singular they

“He” (him, his, himself) is used for a man, and “she” (her, hers, herself) is used for a woman. “It” (its, itself) cannot be used for a person. English doesn’t have a neutral singular pronoun for a person.
Some people say “he or she” or “he/she”, but these constructions are clumsy. I’ve even seen “(s)he” which is worse!

“They” (them, their, theirs, themselves) is plural, but many people use “they” as a singular pronoun when the sex of the person is unknown, or when they don’t want to say whether the person is a man or a woman. This is called “singular they”.
Some people argue that “they” can only be used for a plural, but most (not all) grammar experts say that the singular “they” is fine in both formal and informal English.
I use singular they all the time.

Note. After singular they, we still use a plural verb. For example:

- My boss told me that someone is going to call later. They are going to ask some questions.
someone (singular) is (singular verb) | they (= someone, singular they) are (plural verb)
- Someone is at the door. Go and see what they want.
someone (singular) is (singular verb) | they (= someone, singular they) want (plural verb)

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maria_borikova

18 May 2021

Russian

@OldGeezer thank you very much for such a clear explanation!!! I got it now. So, if the gender is clear with ‘’either .. or’’, ‘neither .. nor’’ and ‘’one of ..’’, etc. we agree these constructions with the appropriate pronoun : Either Jane or Susan can bring her (feminine) guitar. Neither John nor Paul could do his (masculine) test. Each of the girls wanted her refund.
But if the gender is unknown, we use singular ‘’their’’:
Each of the customers wanted their refund, etc.
Does it sound correct?