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Everyone has their mobile phone



 
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Everyone has their mobile phone #1 (permalink) Sun Nov 21, 2004 8:38 am   Everyone has their mobile phone
 

Test No. errors/elem-13 "Telephones", question 7

Almost everybody today has their own mobiles phone or 'cell phone' as people in North America call it.

(a) everybody
(b) has
(c) mobiles phone

Test No. errors/elem-13 "Telephones", answer 7

Almost everybody today has their own mobile phone or 'cell phone' as people in North America call it.

Correct entry: mobile phone
The error was: (c) mobiles phone

You have found the error but your entry is incorrect.
Almost everybody today has their own mobile phones or 'cell phone' as people in North America call it.
_________________________

why is it not "mobile phones"?
why their and not his?
"everybody = his" or everybody=their
Rich7
I'm here quite often ;-)


Joined: 17 Nov 2004
Posts: 519
Location: Caracas, Venezuela

Everyone has their mobile phone #2 (permalink) Sun Nov 21, 2004 11:04 am   Everyone has their mobile phone
 

Hi Rich7,

That's a very interesting question. Alan prefers to use this modern way of expressing the third person singular because it refers to both sexes - female as well as male.
So, instead of saying Ğeveryone has his or her own mobile phoneğ (which is a rather clumsy construction) we say Ğeveryone has their own mobile phoneğ meaning that Ğeveryoneğis one person, either female or male and thus it's phone not phones.

Let me know if this makes sense to you.
Thanks
Torsten
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!way to go! #3 (permalink) Tue Nov 23, 2004 6:53 am   !way to go!
 

correctlly explained and perfectly understood.

Thanks a ton.
Guest






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