11 Jul
2003
11 Jul
'03
9:20 a.m.
On Thu, Jul 10, 2003 at 10:07:44AM -0700, Ben Gertzfield wrote:
This is not technically correct English, but it's a very common usage.
Since there is no gender-neutral way in English to refer to a person whose gender is unknown (in this case, the owner of the email address) the word "they" in a singular sense is often used for this purpose. I think that the classical grammar suggests that "she" is the right replacement. While in the modern English, this "gender-neutral" "she" tends to be replaced with "they".
Disclaimer. I am not a native speaker, that's what I was said by a English teacher. :)) -- Misha