Question on English Language to British Members

The British use the English language more skillfully than Americans do. I don't mean here at EVC necessarily, but on average throughout the whole population.So I'm curious if you are wrestling, in England, with a problem we wrestle with in America: the "he/she" problem. An example is in the sentence "When a fire fighter enters a smokey building, he/she must follow strict safety proceedures." We don't know if the fire fighter is male or female, and we don't want to offend anyone by using either "he" or "she" alone.Here are some of the ways we handle this problem in the United States:1) We use the plural "they". So the sentence becomes "When a fire fighter enters a smokey building, they must follow strict safety proceedures." We use this solution more often in speech than in writing, and it is probably the most common solution we use in speech.2) We make "fire fighter" plural, and write "When fire fighters enter a smokey building, they must follow strict safety proceedures."3) We write "he or she", "s/he", or "he/she".Is this a problem in England, or do you have it resolved? Just curious; thanks in advance for any replies.IGIT

So you face the same quandary in England, Straggler---bummer. I was hoping that you had a better solution that I could copy.I've heard that someone proposed "e" as a gender neutral pronoun to replace "he/she", but it never caught on.My sister, who has some writing talent, has begrudgingly resigned herself to using "they" in place of "he/she" because it is now so commonly used in speech.IGITEdited by InGodITrust, : No reason given.Edited by InGodITrust, : No reason given.Edited by InGodITrust, : No reason given.

There was a TV commercial--probably 20 years ago--for a resturaunt that served ribs. The commercial had a jingle with the lyrics "Dem bones, dem bones, dem beef bones."Even to this day, when I give my dog one of those doggie treats shaped like a bone, I'll tell my wife that I'm going to give the dog one of "dem bones." It's funny for some reason. Well funny to me anyway.IGIT