3 ms·

Instead of just criticising, maybe you could suggest how parent should improve? I'm always very confused about what personal pronoun to use for organisations or

by tomp 12y ago

Instead of just criticising, maybe you could suggest how parent should improve? I'm always very confused about what personal pronoun to use for organisations or companies.

masklinn 12y ago
The singular impersonal "it" when talking about Google as a corporate entity (its component personnel would likely be "Googlers"). So "Google pays its taxes" and "Google doesn't pay its taxes".
- tomp 12y ago
  Isn't "they" used sometimes as well? At least it's frequently used for "police"...
  - Symmetry 12y ago
    You would use "they" to refer to the class of people who are police but "it" to refer to organizations like a police department.
- JonnieCache 12y ago
  It's standard in british english to refer to all companies/coporate entities/groups as "they." Personally I enjoy the moral implications of this.
ErikBjare 12y ago
Not criticizing, first I was confused then I realized it was likely to be a side-effect of being a native speaker of German or another language. Sorry if it came out wrong.