Tips To Keep You From Sounding Stupid

Here is today's tip to keep you from sounding like a moron: The words "they," "their" and "them" refer to more than one person (or animal or thing), and shouldn't be used to refer to a single person. This is something we all learned in school early on, and yet the mistake is common. And, yes, the correct "he or she" can become awkward, particularly if in the same sentence you need to also say "him or her," but there are ways to avoid such constructions. In some cases, you could simply make the subject plural. Like instead of saying "Anyone who votes Republican should have his or her head examined," you could say, "People who vote Republican should have their heads examined." The same goes for someone of unknown gender. Don't say, for example, "Someone left their backpack outside the boarding gate." If you don't want to say, "Someone left his or her backpack outside the boarding you gate," you could instead say, "Someone left a backpack outside the boarding gate" or "A backpack was left outside the boarding gate" or "TSA is going to destroy someone's backpack."