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There is no problem if a singular subject is having one or more objects.

singular-singular:

The student sat down on his seat.

singular-plural:

The student looked at his books.

There is also no problem with multiple subjects having multiple objects.

plural-plural:

The students had to compile a list of their books.

But what is the proper construct in the plural-singular case?

Variant 1:

The students opened their book.

Variant 2:

The students opened their books.

(In case we are trying to describe that each student opened exactly one of their books.)

Edwin Ashworth
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D. Kovács
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  • Each student opened their book. Variant 1 is wrong; Variant 2 is ambiguous. (And my variant uses the singular they, which has been around and used for much longer than I've been alive, but which some people still don't accept.) – Peter Shor May 31 '17 at 19:02
  • @PeterShor That is an entirely other construct, and although I agree that rephrasing the sentence is a possiblity, it is not always feasable or the intention. The question is not about this specific case, but the general rule. Other example sentences could be e.g., "They grabbed their head/heads in pain.", "We called our mom/moms." – D. Kovács May 31 '17 at 19:05
  • The students opened their book brings to mind a group of Hogwarts students who had only one copy of 'The Care of Magical Creatures' for safety reasons. – Edwin Ashworth May 31 '17 at 19:10
  • @EdwinAshworth so for example "The students rushed to their seat." would bring into mind all the students going for the one and only chair in the room? :) – D. Kovács May 31 '17 at 19:14
  • No. English is idiosyncratic. 'The students took their time' uses a firmly fixed expression not having a count-noun alternative; 'They all took their seat' is a less frequent but acceptable variant of 'They all took their seats' (do a Google search) where 'took/take their seat' is becoming a fixed expression; and 'They opened their book at page 572' is probably also acceptable – but without padding, 'The students opened their book.' is, as Peter says, unidiomatic. – Edwin Ashworth May 31 '17 at 19:25

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