Ah! So Ed’s facile explanation about selling down inventory is actually a cover-up. You’ve unwittingly unveiled the truth!
After all, if Five Books was enough for Moses, well, Cecil is a modest man!
The second half of the sentence emphasizes their status as individuals. As such, from this pedant’s POV, it would read better as:
“Although Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, George Michael and Madonna were all crappy artists, each had a massive following during the eighties.”
The Oxford Comma is something I’ve been told to eliminate wherever I see it, though I am aware that debate continues regarding its validity.
We could always eliminate gendered personal pronouns completely. The Finns seem to have done fine without them.
Maybe not. Just start using it, and asee what comprehension follows!
That’s how every thing new starts :).
Knorf has stated an option which they think is acceptable. Frankly, I think they needs a cranial readjustment to think ‘they’ is always acceptable.
How about referring to the gender-neutral second person personal pronoun as “Chris”.
could go either way.
/Has lots of guy and girl friends named Chris
Your comphrehension leaves much to be desired. Did you read the links I provided?
Tiffany had a massive following?
StG
Spivak pronouns are popular in certain online circles.
he / she: e
him / her: eir
his / hers: eirs
“Although Tiffany, Debbie Gibson, George Michael, and Madonna were all crappy artists, each had his own massive following during the eighties.”
Sorry, but no. “Tiffany” et al. is the subject of “were” in the first phrase. The subject of “had” in the second phrase is “each,” which is singular. Using “their” would be a good choice, but not because there’s a plural subject. There isn’t.
Tiffany of the cheese classic 'I Think We’re Alone Now. That song has a good following–I dunno about the rest.
I use ‘they’ and ‘their’ for this unless it’s utterly jarring.
May I suggest two others that are also in use:
“she or he” (in that order)
“she”
(We could officially disignate “she” as the default gender with the understanding that it will no longer specify a person’s sex. Such a nice change of pace, don’t you think? After all, it does contain the word he. Similarly, the word women could be used to designate all people. It contains the word men and yet it is more than that.
“Thye”- and when it sounds strange or forced, then use “he” as it IS gender neutral when used in that fashion.
“they” :smack:
(Gulp!) OK, you caught me. I didn’t follow up.
I’ve rectified the situation, however, read the links, and there’s still some (many) instances where using ‘they’ as a singular is difficult, unwieldy, and generally fuct.
Many instances can use ‘they’ quite easily and with unilateral comprehension, but there are some instances where the personal pronoun needs singularization.
E.G.:
“Czarcasm is a moderator on the SDMB. I have noticed that they seem to have a bias toward certain members.” Just doesn’t cut it.
Maybe you (I’m sure you do) have a way to rephrase to provide ambiguous gender without violation of rules of English and providing comprehension? Please share.
SnakeS
Oooohhhh. I like the way this gender-ambiguous person speaketh!
Can the rest of the males here handle it??? I think not.