LOL!

Complicate, complicate, burden and encumber us to death -- Certain People's master plan.

I'm sticklish on correct pronoun usage. I hate hate hate to see or hear a plural pronoun -- them, they, their, themselves -- used for a single person, e.g., "The other driver wouldn't give their name." People who misuse pronouns thus debauch and uglify the language. Sure, they have a right to do so, just as a person has a right to keep garbage in his yard, or to tramp stamp her body from wrist to ear and put a bone or a bolt through her nose. But it's ugly, and the rest of us have to look at it.

I like to died (look it up!) the first time I read Philippians 2:3 in the KJV (1611): "...let each esteem other better than themselves." Ugh!

They should have stuck with Tyndale (1534) on that one: "...every man esteem other better than himself."

When I was a corporate slave, I always addressed a woman I didn't know as "Mrs. So-and-so". I figured I would be right about 85% of the time. I was almost certainly wrong sometimes, but interestingly, no woman ever corrected me. But that was 15 years ago; I'd probably need to wear some good noise-cancelling earmuffs if I did that today.

What do you know, it's actually in there

www.biblegateway.com/pass...ilippian s%202&version=KJV

....but honestly I think that's the way language has uncontroversially been since then except in rigid or uptight contexts like teachers instructing pupils how to fill in SATs. Feel certain 'than himself', while textbook English, just isn't the default in my spoken and written worlds -- sort of like saying"th'm" for 'them' as in "I put "th'm" on the table. That I cannot abide even tho some of my favorite ppl talk that way -- just a few that (like me) ain't originally from aroundjear.

Southerners used to pronounce 'Mrs.' "miz", at least in my native Va. Ripely ironic that 'Ms' is the gender'ically correct thing now (if it still is). Before it became common and axe-grinding I used to enjoy using it just to be different ;-)

One of my old bosses once said "If you have any questions, see John (the other boss) or myself after the meeting." I told him "Dave, I can see you, and I can see myself, but only you can see yourself -- that's how reflexive pronouns work." And there were a few other teaching moments like that over the years.

One happy day in a meeting some hapless new hire started to admonish me for saying "me and Bob" as in "That new equipment was for me and Bob."

The boss shut him down hard: "Don't EVER try to correct StraitGate's English."

Miz: A preacher friend of mine from North Carolina calls women Miz Julie and Miz Lisa and such -- Miz in front of the girl's first name. I can't say Miz, but I might say Miss Julie or Miss Lisa sometimes.

Our school had a teacher c. 1971 who was a women's libber (and an old hag), and she wanted (and told) everybody to call her Miz Ade. First time I had ever heard the term. Thankfully I wasn't in her class.

I hate hate hate to see or hear a plural pronoun -- them, they, their, themselves -- used for a single person, e.g., "The other driver wouldn't give their name."

Not being English capable, that seems OK to me.

Why don't you try to fill this HoosierHayseed in as to what it should be.

My pronouns, whatever those are, are still 'sick and tired.'

what it should be ???

"His" is correct when the person is known to be male, or the sex of the person is unknown. "Her" if known to be female.

That's what the rule was for hundreds of years in modern English. But in the 1960s and 70s the Women's Liberation Movement (aka Jewish Radical Feminism) decided we should all say "his or her" or "he or she" or "himself or herself" when the subject person's sex was unknown. But that still wasn't fair, because the man went before the woman. So every Jew-owned publication in the world started using they, them, their, and themselves to refer to a single person of unknown sex. This debauching of the language -- still ongoing, new horrid examples can be seen every day -- is a large part of their overall effort to degrade white culture and civilization generally. It's what they do.

Yeah, the clueless "and I" thing drives me straight up the WALL. What IS it with ppl?

Ask your preacher friend plz if he addresses all ladies this, or only married ones. The people demand to know. Ade, what a strange surname! Some teachers, subs and staff were a real freak show in my youth.