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Possible Duplicate:
Is there a correct gender-neutral, singular pronoun (“his” versus “her” versus “their”)?

Is there generic way to write something like this

Karin Bellow replied to his own post.

But making this sentence generic, because writing his I suppose that I write to male person. How can I do that?

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mesiesta
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I would write Karin Bellow is replying to their own post. Using they when gender is unspecified or unknown has a long and honorable tradition.

Pitarou
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  • Their is plural and Karin is singular. I don't think this is a good resolution. There is not a pronoun for people that does not refer to gender. – Barbara Hayes Dec 21 '11 at 14:04
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    "They" is morphologically and syntactically plural. However, it is semantically either singular or plural depending on usage. Here it is being used as a semantic singular. – David Schwartz Dec 21 '11 at 15:34
  • @Barbara Singular they is widely used and understood, and in this context it is not inappropriate. All the alternatives (he / she, he, she or it) have problems. – Pitarou Dec 22 '11 at 02:41
  • I like using singular they, but I find it confusing when applied to people with names. – Peter Shor Jul 13 '13 at 19:44
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    @PeterShor Then write "Karin's". – Pitarou Jul 16 '13 at 23:20