Have you ever wondered how to refer to a person if you don’t know whether that person is male or female? There are several ways people have thought of:

If the bus driver is too tired, he should take a break.

For years, this was the usual way of writing English. But not all bus drivers are male. Using he in this sentence excludes women, and that isn’t good! So, people sometimes change it to something like this:

If the bus driver is too tired, she should take a break.

Changing he to she does nothing to solve the problem. So, sometimes you see this:

  1. If the bus driver is too tired, he or she should take a break.
  2. If the bus driver is too tired, s/he should take a break.
  3. If the bus driver is too tired, (s)he should take a break.

The first example is too wordy. You might be able to use he or she once, but anything more than that just doesn’t feel like good English. The second and third examples are just attempts to abbreviate the first example, so they have the same problem as the first.

Two Solutions

There are two solutions to this problem. One is more common in formal English, and the other is more common in everyday English.

Formal English

We can often change the sentence to plural and avoid the problem altogether:

If the bus drivers are too tired, they should take a break.

This solution is often the best in written English, but it isn’t always possible to change a sentence to plural. So, it’s sometimes necessary to rewrite the sentence to avoid the situation altogether. Here’s an example:

A tired bus driver should take a break.

Everyday English

In everyday (informal) English, we usually use the singular they. This is a really common pattern which you might think is wrong. However, because it is used by so many native English speakers, it is actually correct in informal English.

To use the singular they, replace the singular pronoun with they/them/their/theirs and change the verb to plural. Make sure that context makes it clear that you’re referring to one person.

You can use this pattern anytime you don’t know whether you’re referring to a male or a female, or if you don’t want to say whether you’re referring to a male or a female. Here’s our example sentence rewritten to use the singular they:

If the bus driver is too tired, they should take a break.

Here’s another example, showing the plural verb:

Tomorrow’s my friend’s birthday. They’re really excited!

Does this help you to understand this topic? You can leave a comment below with your opinion, or ask any questions you might have.