Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[puzzle]

Dear teachers,
Could you please tell me if we can say "change their minds"? When should we use plural form?
Thank you very much!

[dragn]

[puzzle]

Then should we say "they change their mind" or "they change their minds"? Thank you!

[dragn]

It's preferable and more technically correct to say change their minds (after all, there are many minds), but that doesn't stop people from occasionally saying change their mind. When people say mind here, they may be thinking of the group in a collective sense rather than as many individuals. It's a trivial error, assuming you even consider it an error at all. Some native speakers do not, horror of horrors.

It could also depend on whether the subject is actually plural or not. The plural form their is routinely used in reference to a single person of unknown or unspecified gender by people who despise the politically correct song and dance of saying his or her, his/her, etc. I am proud to say that I am a card-carrying member of this group. For example:

If a person isn't sure about things, it's often easy to change their mind.

Now mind must be singular since it refers to a single person. The plural form their slides by unnoticed since it has already been clearly established that the subject is singular. Using the plural forms they, their, etc. is one common option used in ordinary speech (and by many in writing) to deal with the issue of referring to a single person of unknown gender. English has no such singular pronouns or possessive adjectives, unfortunately. It's either male (he/his/him), female (she/her/hers), or inanimate object (it/its).

A generation ago, people would use the male forms without even blinking:

If a person isn't sure about things, it's often easy to change his mind.

Then came the Age of Political Correctness. Policemen became police officers. Firemen became firefighters. Airline stewardesses became flight attendants. And suddenly it became punishable by death to blithely use male pronouns and possessive adjectives in reference to a person of unknown gender. Of course, many female writers today use she and her in reference to a person of unknown gender, but no one dares breathe a word in protest.

I'll no doubt be burned at the stake for spreading heresy, but that's OK.

Greg