Another annoying advert at the top of the page

I suppose they don't want to refer to a child as 'it'

Are the letters you receive not a preset format where the 'writer' would just insert Mrs. Bloggs or whatever?

At least GHQ used the correct their

It should really say "support your children with their spelling, grammar and punctuation," because their is a plural.

Anyone agree?

It should read: 'Follow this link and I will help you to spend some of your hard-earned money - otherwise you will feel guilty forevermore if you fail to help your child or grandchild'.

ps if the grammar in the above is incorrect it is because there were no 'extra lessons' available, costing a fortune, when I was a child.

Yes. Or 'its' if they insist on the child being singular. His or her would be correct, too.

Thought I was right. Not a good title then for a book on grammar and spelling.

It has now disappeared and I have adverts for sandals on the top and side - I was looking at sandals after reading the thread on shoes.

Big Brother is Watching [scared]

at the side - sorry!!

The ad would have annoyed me too, had I seen it.

However, I don't generally have a problem with the singular "they/their" to refer to a single person of unspecified gender. We can no longer use 'he'/'his' as used to be the norm, and saying 'he or she' / 'his or her' has now become old fashioned, not to mention clumsy if repeated. Nor can we use 'it' for a person, with the exception perhaps of an unborn or new-born baby.

Yes, we can often re-word a sentence to avoid the problem, but we shouldn't really need to go to such lengths, should we?

'They' serves the purpose very well, although it's worth noting that its use in this wayis nothing new. Many famous authors throughout history have used it and apparently it is even widely used in many versions of the Bible, including the King James version.

So why does the advert bother me, you are probably wondering. Well, I have to admit that I don't really know! I guess I must be guilty of double standards, expecting one thing from us ordinary people and something else from so-called experts.