As we had this little discussion in the shoutbox, I decided to make a thread about whether its correct to use "their" or "they" as a singular form...

for example:


I think it is grammatically wrong to say "this user..." and then end with saying "in their profile", still relating to "the user", who is singular.

Wouldn't it be better to say "This user....specified in his profile" ?
And I don't think "his" would be sexist in this case, because "the user" includes both female and male, same as "the baby".

What do you think, is this wrong or correct ?

The links I posted in the shoutbox...

http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~brians/errors/they.html
http://www.proz.com/topic/23556
http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/austheir.html

I think "their" is a good substitute for "his/her," and to me (American, English is my native language) it seems perfectly acceptable.

their refers to the ownership of a belonging, in this case that is the user's email address. So it is incorrect not to use their in my opinon

I rekon its ok but there should be a capital 'A' at the start of your name