問：有英文補習社傳單說：Is your child between 5-13 years of age and needs help with their
English?（你有五至十三歲孩子須補習英文嗎？）補習老師自言是英國人，有二十五年教英文經驗，不承認句子有兩個文法錯誤，先生認為怎樣？
答：Is
your child between 5-13的5-13等於5
to 13，那to應改為and。此外，英文不可以說Is your child... needs help。全句可改寫如下：Is
your child between 5 and 13 years of age and in need of help with their
English? 累贅一點，則可說Is your child between 5 and 13 years
of age, and do they need help with their English? 這Is
your child needs的錯誤，那位讀者也看到了。
但他說的另一個錯誤卻值得斟酌：單數名詞child不可配複數的their。英文child、person、everyone之類名詞，沒有說明性別，而英文沒有不分性別的單數代名詞，傳統文法以he
/ him / his充數，但女權分子不高興，而且有時會很荒謬，例如紐約州議會曾有議員說：Everyone
will be able to decide for himself whether or not to have an abortion（人人可自行決定墮不墮胎）。這似乎是說男人墮胎，himself最好改為themselves。事實上，以they / them / their作child、person等的代詞，古已有之，例如十八世紀名作家Jonathan
Swift Polite Conversation中有以下一句：Every fool can do as
they're bid（無論哪個獃子，都可按吩咐辦事）。這用法舊例不少，今天更加常見，不能算是錯誤。
