On Wed, 04 Aug 2004, Matt Kraai wrote: > On Wed, Aug 04, 2004 at 07:26:29PM -0700, Don Armstrong wrote: > > On Wed, 04 Aug 2004, Tobias Toedter wrote: > > > "This is to prevent the Project Secretary from missing a proposal > > > in the huge volumes of mail generated on some of our lists and to > > > prevent them from having to subscribe to each and every list > > > created by the Project." > > > > > > The Project Secretary is just one person, not a group. Is it still > > > correct to use "them"? I'm sorry to bother you with this, it's just > > > that I've never seen or heard such sentences. > > > > That's definetly suboptimal in this case. > > Why?
Them (and to a lesser extent, they) tends to indicate the singular. While they is becomming a more common replacement for a class of people, when we're talking about a specific position, a singular form is generally more appropriate... but I suppose you could have grammarians arguing for millenia over this issue. That's why I suggest punting and avoiding the issue entirely wherever possible. Anyway, it's just a suggestion. Do whatever you feel works best. Don Armstrong -- Of course Pacman didn't influence us as kids. If it did, we'd be running around in darkened rooms, popping pills and listening to repetitive music. http://www.donarmstrong.com http://rzlab.ucr.edu
