Singular pronouns replace singular nouns, while plural pronouns replace plural nouns. English lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun, causing problems for writers. “They” is often used informally, while “he or she” is used formally. It’s best to restructure sentences to avoid the issue.
A singular pronoun is a word that takes the place of or refers to a noun in a sentence that is singular. This means that a noun like “cat” or “table” can be replaced with singular pronouns like “he” or “it.” In contrast to this, plural pronouns are typically used to refer to nouns that are also in plural form such as the noun “brothers” being replaced by “they”. There is no singular pronoun in English for a person of indeterminate or neuter gender, which often creates problems in formal works for many writers.
The basic function of a singular pronoun is quite simple, as it is just a pronoun replacing a noun in the singular. Pronouns, in general, are used in a sentence to refer to or in place of a noun, which is called the antecedent. A sentence like “This is my cat, my cat is quite friendly” is grammatically correct but repetitive and reads and sounds quite strange. The noun phrase “my cat” can be replaced by a singular pronoun, “he” or “she” depending on the sex of the cat. “This is my cat, he’s friendly enough,” is less repetitive and feels more natural.
There are also plural pronouns which can be used in much the same way as a singular pronoun, to refer to an antecedent that is plural in nature. The sentence “My keys are on that table, please pass me my keys” has the same repetition problem as the previous example. This can be simplified by using a plural pronoun to change the sentence to “My keys are on that table, please pass them to me”, where “they” is a plural pronoun. Unlike using a singular pronoun, plural forms do not indicate gender and therefore can be used more easily.
The importance of gender in the use of a singular pronoun in English has created something of a grammatical problem. There is no gender-neutral singular form of pronoun for referring to a person in English. “I”, “me” and “mine” can be used for first person singular forms, and “you” and “your” are used for second person forms. A third person singular pronoun, however, is limited to “he”, “she”, or “it”.
This lack of a gender-neutral pronoun has led to some confusion and frustration among writers, since “it” is generally considered inappropriate when referring to a person. In formal contexts, many writers use the phrase “he or she” or “his or hers” to refer to someone of unknown or indistinct gender. The plural pronoun “they” is often used for informal contexts such as “When we find the person who wrote this note, they are in big trouble.” It is often best for a writer to simply avoid the issue and restructure a sentence to eliminate the need for a pronoun such as “The writer of this note is in big trouble.”
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
