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TGS · 09-23-2011, 03:32 AM

It's not a plural - it's just gender indeterminate. If I was to say something like, "If the person who stole my pencil returns it by midday they will not be punished", there would appear to be nothing wrong with it. If I have no reason to believe that the culprit is one gender rather than another it would seem to be the best thing to say. As for Google, I would have thought they did know the gender of "person x", so it just seems like laziness.

09-23-2011, 03:32 AM	#4
TGS Country Member Posts: 9,058 Karma: 7676767 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Denmark Device: Liseuse: Irex DR800. PRS 505 in the house, and the missus has an iPad.	It's not a plural - it's just gender indeterminate. If I was to say something like, "If the person who stole my pencil returns it by midday they will not be punished", there would appear to be nothing wrong with it. If I have no reason to believe that the culprit is one gender rather than another it would seem to be the best thing to say. As for Google, I would have thought they did know the gender of "person x", so it just seems like laziness. Last edited by TGS; 09-23-2011 at 08:21 AM. Reason: Typo