16 Comments
why not his own cake, la torta is female, you do not know here if it is a he or a she.
Good idea, but don't forget that 'ones' needs an apostrophe before the letter s.
actually grammar rules dictate that everyone would be followed by his or her, not their. Everyone is singular. learned this when studying for SAT
In English, historically, "their" was used as a gender agnostic third person singular, rather than "his or her". This usage declined over time, but has re-surged recently.
133
I've heard this said, but there is no real evidence of it. Historically "his" has been used when the gender is not known (or more recently, "his or her") Common informal usage may be "their," but this is not considered proper grammar and would not be used in a buisness or academic setting.
- 1669
I disagree with the statement that it would not be used in an academic or business environment, but I might be wrong.
I edit spelling and grammar in an academic setting, and we [my coworkers and I] are told to always change "their" to "he or she". Of course, this rule could vary between institutions.
- 1669
I did some searching and opinions seem to be all over the place. It seems that (especially US) colloquial use is "their", the very formal use is singular, and there is a wide range in between. Some comprehensive and balanced views: https://www.uwgb.edu/writingcenter/handbook/TheirHisHer.htm
http://www.pearsonlongman.com/ae/azar/grammar_ex/message_board/archive/articles/00088.htm
- 1817
I'm not so sure. Language is a living thing, and today very sensitive to what might be considered as 'sexist' talk. So I think 'their' will be more and more common in sentences like this.
- 133
Again, common usage may be "their," but formal usage would be "he or she" or (historically) simply "he." I don't think anyone, no matter how politically correct, would consider "he or she" to be sexist. And again, I mostly take issue with the claim that "their" as a singular pronoun was some common historical usage. I certainly have not found that to be the case.
- 1817
Teachers and students are of course more conservative than native speakers in general, we have to be - to learn what is idiomatically correct. But as a 'linguist' I am much more interested in the evolution of languages and comparing different languages. E.g. when I have to translate "le sue aventure" my first choice is always 'HER adventures', even though HIS is just as valid for an Italian. The roman languages (french, spanish, italian) have this choice every day, not feeling any difference, there is no 'stressing' if it is His or Her. But in English, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, we don't divide words into masculin/feminine, so when we say 'His' or 'Her' it has the possibility to get a political stress, which wasn't intended. In Sweden people are at the moment trying to implement a new special word to be used as not to stress eather sex (masculine/feminine). That's how far this evolution can get ... there are actually languages (e.g. Finnish) that has no word for 'he' or 'she', they only use 'it'.
But the sentence clearly says "ognuna" so it is already known that each one is female. There's no way that can be considered sexist and using the words "their own cake" is just wrong in this case.
