Singular "They" for Anonymized References in Technical English
5 exercises — practise singular "they" for anonymized users and unspecified agents in technical writing.
0 / 5 completed
1 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses singular "they" with the correct verb form for an unspecified user?
"If a user forgets their password, they can reset it from the login screen" is correct: singular "they" takes the same verb forms as plural "they" ("they can reset", not "they can resets"), even though it refers to one unspecified user. Option B incorrectly adds "-s" to "reset" after the modal "can", which never takes a third-person "-s". Option C incorrectly adds "-s" to the modal "can" itself, which is invariable. Option D uses "is" with "they", incorrectly treating singular "they" as requiring singular verb agreement it doesn't use.
2 / 5
Choose the sentence that correctly uses singular "they" in a user story without assuming gender.
"As a customer, I want to update my profile so that I can keep my information current" is correct: in first-person user story format, the subject is already "I", so the pronoun must stay consistent as "I/my" throughout, not switch to "they" or any third-person pronoun. Option A incorrectly and inconsistently switches from first person "I" to third person "they" mid-sentence. Option C incorrectly assumes a male referent for a generic customer. Option D incorrectly uses "it", which is inappropriate and dehumanizing for a person.
3 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses singular "they" to refer back to "whoever" reports a bug, avoiding gendered assumptions?
"Whoever reports the bug should include their browser version in the ticket" is correct: singular "their" is the standard, natural way to refer back to an unspecified, gender-unknown referent like "whoever" in modern professional English. Option B's "his or her's" is both clunky and grammatically wrong (the possessive of "her" is "her", not "her's"). Option C's "its" is inappropriate for a person. Option D's "he/she's" mixes a written slash-form with a spoken contraction and is not appropriate prose style.
4 / 5
Select the sentence where singular "they" correctly refers to a specific, previously-mentioned but anonymized support ticket submitter.
"The customer said they couldn't log in, so we asked them for their account email" is correct: this uses the full singular "they" paradigm correctly — subject "they", object "them", and possessive "their" — all referring to the same anonymized customer. Option B incorrectly uses subject-form "they" where the possessive "their" is required before the noun "account email". Option C incorrectly uses "its", inappropriate for a person. Option D incorrectly invents a non-standard possessive form "they's".
5 / 5
Which sentence correctly uses the reflexive form of singular "they" ("themselves", not "themself" in formal technical writing) to describe a user completing an action alone?
"A developer can configure the webhook themselves without contacting support" is correct: "themselves" is the standard reflexive form paired with singular "they" in formal writing (the informal variant "themself" is emerging but less accepted in professional documentation). Option B's "theirself" is a nonstandard, ungrammatical form. Option C assumes a male referent for a generic, unspecified developer. Option D's "itself" incorrectly refers to the webhook rather than the developer.