Gendered Pronoun Dilemmas

Did you know? Singular they actually predates plural they. English grammar is much more flexible than people believe, and many “rules” that we were taught as children come from obsolete reasons or even someone’s pet peeve. (The “rule” not to end your sentence with a preposition, for example, was made popular by seventeenth-century poet John Dryden and then clung to for hundreds of years…though no one really seems to know why.)

In another example, the “rule” to not split your infinitives (see what I did there 😉) was simply because nineteenth-century grammarians thought that English should adhere to Latin rules, to make our language more classy. (This is another one you can ignore, BTW.)

💡 Grammar does–and should–change over time. We were once taught to use a “generic he” to solve the pronoun problem, and now we are realizing how problematic that is. Singular they has gone from being perfectly acceptable to “improper grammar” to the now-preferred choice.

🔆 You can also rephrase your sentence to avoid the problem entirely if you would like.

For example:
“If anyone asks to perform a routine inspection on your home, be sure to ask for identification first.” ✔️

There are plenty of ways to make inclusive AND grammatically correct pronoun choices!