War of the words
Sir: I don't know whether English is Mr George Mandel's first language, but this is what he wrote last week in a letter complain- ing about me: 'They is always followed by a plural verb form, as in Dot Wordsworth's last sentence, 'If anyone dislikes it, they'll have to lump it.' If she had really meant it when she said that they can have a singular meaning she would have written has instead of have.' (Letters, 8 October).
Come off it; do try to think a little. have to, you'll have to, he'll have to, we'll have to , you'll have to, they have to. Got it?
But in any case, a good parallel for argu- ing that a formally plural pronoun may have a singular meaning is the historical precedent of you replacing thou. Or dost thou disagree?
Dot Wordsworth
56 Doughty Street London WC1
Previous page
