pronouns - Using 'they' for person of unknown sex





Gender neutral pronoun.



In everyday use, I often use the pronoun "they" to refer to a unknown person if I do not know their sex. As in:



Bob: Who was it that emailed you about the company cutting back?


Sally: I don't know. They didn't say.



I remember using "they" this way in a paper for my college English 101 class, and my teacher marked off for it, saying that it is incorrect. So is it? It's definitely much easier to say than "he/she"...


Perhaps it's considered correct (or at least accepted) in speech but not in written form?




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