English grammar in US
Robin Leech
robinl at NAIT.AB.CA
Mon Jun 24 12:26:34 CDT 1996
It used to be that the generic terms were "he" and "his", but in our
effort to be politically correct, we have opted for she/he/it (contracted
to sh--), and him/her/it and his/hers/its.
However, most do not like to become tangled in the "he/she/it" or
"his/hers/its" business, so they opt for the grammatical error (case
shift) as in, "Each has their opinion."
Perhaps it is time that I propose a new pronoun to cover "him, her, it"
and the possessive "his, hers, its" so that people will not indulge in
the case shift. The new word is HAR. Thus, "Each has HAR opinion."
This is a non-gender, politically safe word. It fits in well with the
sentence word flow. HAR replaces and can be used in place of, if one
must be politically correct, all of the objective and possessive pronouns
above (him, her, it, his, hers, its).
For example "Where is har plate?" (Where is his/her/its plate?)
"That plate is har." (That plate is his/hers/its.)
Enjoy. Even if you do not accept my new word, a new one is needed so
that each of us will keep our grammar straight. (teehee)
Robin Leech
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