is / are

contrex wrote:

McTag wrote:
"Everyone" can mean "each one", and also "all", which can be different in some cases.

imho

Check out the recent "everyone / every one" discussion.

Okay. I contributed to that. It seemed to reach a state of stability and general agreement.

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Mc Tag

Correct me if I'm wrong. I think the plural could be used if we want to avoid being sexist.

For example, 'Everyone know what they have to do. They have been told.'

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Yoong Liat wrote:

Mc Tag

Correct me if I'm wrong. I think the plural could be used if we want to avoid being sexist.

For example, 'Everyone know what they have to do. They have been told.'

That's interesting.

We would only write "Everybody knows" or "Everyone knows" before "they have been told".

In other words "each person knows" (individually) because "they have been told" (collectively). Almost like singular followed by plural. Odd.

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Hi Mc Tag

For example, 'Everyone knows what they have to do. They have been told.' It was a careless mistake. What I mean is that in such sentences 'they' should be used to avoid being sexist although 'knows' is the preceding verb.

Regards

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Yoong Liat wrote:

Hi Mc Tag

For example, 'Everyone knows what they have to do. They have been told.' It was a careless mistake. What I mean is that in such sentences 'they' should be used to avoid being sexist although 'knows' is the preceding verb.

Regards

Mistake? We all make them. Never mind, it brought out an interesting point, I think.

Yes, it's commonplace to use "they" like that....and even when the alternative would be to write "he or she", (when you mean one individual) which is a bit clumsy.

Example: "I've told the whole class to stay out, and if anyone disobeys me, they will be in deep trouble."

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