TALKING THE TALK

“I think Everyone has their opinion sounds better than Everyone has his or her opinion. And nobody says whom. Why should I write that way?” Over time, the conventions governing certain usages—such as who versus whom, or their versus his or her when it refers to an indefinite pronoun like everyone—have become much more relaxed. To many Americans, Whom did you talk to? and No one finished his or her test—both of which are technically “correct”—sound unpleasantly fussy. However, other people object to less formal constructions such as Who did you talk to? and No one finished their test; to them, such usages signal a lack of discrimination. Unfortunately, you can’t please everyone. Use whatever you are most comfortable with in speaking, but be more careful in formal writing. If you don’t know whether your audience will prefer more or less formality, try recasting your sentence.