Thread: a word that should not be visible?

Deal!

Originally Posted by Vadim84

Hm, but how will you explain this quote from my English dictionary. It's an explanation of one of the meanings of the word "someone":
If you say that a person is someone or somebody in a particular kind of work or in a particular place, you mean that they are considered to be important in that kind of work or in that place.
A SINGULAR subject (the word "person") + they, huh?

Then I would say that I am right and your dictionary is wrong. Also, I am incredibly arrogant. You should have gotten rid of the bold -- it confused me -- I had to read it 3 times to understand your point! :P I still maintain that your dictionary is wrong -- it should be "he". Seriously. That's my argument. I really don't know anything about the English language (I hated those stupid classes) -- but I'm quite sure I'm in the right here.

P.S. As a bonus nugget of wisdom, as my gift to you, I will tell you that "someone" and "somebody" in this context is a special usage. Not that that has anything to do with the main argument here.

Originally Posted by Бармалей

Originally Posted by Vadim84

Hm, but how will you explain this quote from my English dictionary. It's an explanation of one of the meanings of the word "someone":
If you say that a person is someone or somebody in a particular kind of work or in a particular place, you mean that they are considered to be important in that kind of work or in that place.
A SINGULAR subject (the word "person") + they, huh?

Then I would say that I am right and your dictionary is wrong. Also, I am incredibly arrogant. You should have gotten rid of the bold -- it confused me -- I had to read it 3 times to understand your point! :P I still maintain that your dictionary is wrong -- it should be "he". Seriously. That's my argument. I really don't know anything about the English language (I hated those stupid classes) -- but I'm quite sure I'm in the right here.

P.S. As a bonus nugget of wisdom, as my gift to you, I will tell you that "someone" and "somebody" in this context is a special usage. Not that that has anything to do with the main argument here.

Sorry, I thought as much that the bold parts could confuse you (as though they were intended to be bold by me and not the dictionary) but in the end decided to respect the original text from the dictionary and leave them in place. It proved to be a wrong decision. My bad.
Now on the main issue. Maybe this has something to do with the fact my dictionary is a Brittish one, not American, so perhaps there are differences between the two grammars. But on the other hand it includes both Brittish and American words. Well, I dunno.
Or maybe you are indeed just incredibly arrogant :P
Or maybe it's just the matter of context.
Or, finally, maybe you are indeed right
Anyway, it's not that important. I hope I haven't been too much of an annoyance for you

Originally Posted by Бармалей

"A human has a right to his safety." (Grammatically fine, may be politically incorrect though)
"A human has a right to their safety." (Totally wrong. If you use this, your English teacher will flog you.)

Both these sentences sound awkward.

"A human has the right to safety" is better.

Originally Posted by basurero

Both these sentences sound awkward.

"A human has the right to safety" is better.

Of course it does. But it has NOTHING to do with the grammar question he had...