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'His or Her' Vs 'Their'

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'His or Her' Vs 'Their'

by GMAT_2010_2707 » Mon Jan 16, 2012 8:23 am
In # 59 of 1000 SC -


Adult survivors of child abuse traditionally have had little or no chance that they could get their symptoms recognized and treated.

(A) that they could get their symptoms recognized and treated
(B) to recognize and treat their symptoms
(C) of getting their symptoms recognized and treated
(D) of recognizing and treating symptoms
(E) of getting his or her symptoms recognized and treated

Option C and E only differ in "their" and "His or her". Could someone explain, whats the difference between two?
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by sam2304 » Mon Jan 16, 2012 8:39 am
A/B - no chance of seems idiomatically right, moreover to recognize is wrong tense in choice B.
D - wrong tense, we need simple past.
E - his/her is not necessary as the subject is plural adult survivors. His or her is applicable when the subject is singular as in everyone, anyone, everybody etc.

IMO C.
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by ArunangsuSahu » Tue Jan 17, 2012 9:08 am
Adult survivors should match with "they"

(C) is the choice
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by chris@magoosh » Tue Jan 17, 2012 5:46 pm
'His' and 'her' are used to refer to a singular entity.

The person who wins can have his or her name inscribed on a plaque.

In this case, 'his' or 'her' refer to the person. As we don't know who the person is - that person could be a boy or a girl - we don't want to only use his, so to be gender neutral we use his/her.

The people who win can have their names inscribed on a plaque.

In this example, 'person' is plural. 'People' - and for that matter any plural subject - never go together with his/her or he/she but always take plural pronouns, e.g. them/their.

One last point:

The person who wins can have his or her name inscribed on a plaque. He or she will also be featured in the local paper.

Notice that I used he or she, and not they. Colloquially, 'they' would be fine. But in standard English/GMAT, we want to keep the pronoun number consistent. In the above sentence, we've already established that 'person' is singular. Therefore that person could be either a he or she (but not a they).

Hope that helps!
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