Sunday Express Editor's Comment

KAE21 | 23:50 Sun 20th Apr 2008 | ChatterBank

13 Answers

Why would somebody like that kill themselves.
Is that proper grammar?
Should it be "themself"?

well what do you expect?

legends word of the day

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Keroppe

them = plarual isnt it??

Keroppe

plural o how eer u spel it!

singular i.e himself, herself, cant be himselves can it?
themselves is correct cos its referring to more than one person?? i hope im right on this, even thu im dyslexic!

winebuyer

I agree.

Surely "themselves" is the reflexive pronoun referring to the third person plural.

Hence, it would be correct to ask "why would people like that kill themselves?" but, as you say KAE21, the proper enquiry of one person is "why would somebody like that kill themself?"

KAE21

Question Author

But somebody is singular andn themselves is plural

sir.prize

Themself is unrecognised in standard English, and was introduced as a singular pronoun to avoid using himself or herself when the sex of the person is unspecified. Therefore, the word themselves is correct. Exactly the same as one would say when talking about a single or more than one person 'They came to dinner today'. Equally correct.

jno

them is plural, self is singular; so there is no such word as themself

winebuyer

The "I agree" was agreeing with KAE21.

BTW, did you get an answer? ... why would they ???

KAE21

Question Author

Can I e-mail the editor of the Sunday Express and point out his grammatical error?

winebuyer

Mmm ... jno may have a good point about "themself".

winebuyer

... but then it would be why the person would kill himself of herself, rather than themselves.

Keroppe

i made that point thu,
well didnt explain it well lol

winebuyer

Yes you did Keroppe, sorry. That's me not concentrating.

winebuyer

Here's another one I'm not sure about. A friend started this in a bar a few days ago. He had a tin of cigars and, on the front, was a sticker that said:

SMOKING HARMS YOU AND OTHERS AROUND YOU

Okay, we know what it's trying to say, but ...

... how can there be a reference to "others" around you when, so far, there has been no reference to anybody at all who is around you?

After all, you yourself are not "around" you (unless you are having an Out Of Body experience - in which case what you are smoking is probably not a cigar!

Still not decided about this one.

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