The Questionable Practice of Using the Plural Possessive Adjective ‘Their’ in a Singular Context

In the latest episode of her insightful grammar series, the dry witted Mary Norris aka “The Comma Queen explores the questionable practice of using the possessive adjective “their” in a singular context.

today we’re going to tackle a cutting-edge issue the singular “their”. Because we don’t have word that means his or hers, we substitute their. A typical example is everyone took their seats. It should be everyone took his or her seat, but who has time to say that. What we often do is rephrase it, for instance we can say “everyone sat down”. That would work just fine.