[Tutor] Python Versions

[Thorsten Kampe]

* Tiger12506 (Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:23:00 -0500)
> > Despite what your english teacher might have tried to make you
> > believe, they were wrong about the lack of a neutral in english.
> > Just like ending sentences with prepositions has always been done
> > and always will be done, the use of "they" to refer to someone of
> > indeterminate gender has been well and alive for hundreds of
> > years.
> >
> > The fact you think it isn't okay is because some english teacher
> > sold you a line of crap about prescriptive grammar rules that
> > don't actually hold true in actual writing. Many grammar books try
> > to make the language into what it is not, rather than describing
> > it as it is.
> 
> No. I form my own opinions and do not believe individuals such as my
> english "teachers" unless I truly believe that each one is correct.
> Each of my english teachers will not tell you to use "they" or even
> the masculine, instead prefering the "proper" way to be "his/her",
> and equivalent forms. I personally believe this to be a waste of
> time, and efficiency is one of my primary motivators. Therefore, for
> space and time I use "he" for an unknown.

That's common English usage:
'In languages with a masculine and feminine gender (and possibly a 
neuter), the masculine is usually employed by default to refer to 
persons of unknown gender. This is still done sometimes in English, 
although an alternative is to use the singular "they".'[1]

> Proper english (as it is from my viewpoint) would be to restructure
> the sentence so that it uses "one" in that instance. (My english
> teachers would gasp at this) This makes the most logical sense. For
> more than one person of unknown gender, English uses "everyone". So
> for one person of unknown gender, English uses "one".

No (see above).

> "They" does not match plurality. Using "they" as you describe it
> would mean that we should be forming sentences such as "They works"
> "They bakes" "They codes in python". Clearly this does not sound
> correct because the word "they" is meant to be used as a plural
> pronoun only.

No (see above).

Thorsten
[1] 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender#Indeterminate_gender