4

Which sentence is correct ?

Each one of you must make up his mind.

Or

Each one of you must make up your mind.

From the knowledge I have , Each is followed by his but since here we have one of you so will it will take your instead of his ?

0

2 Answers 2

2

Each one of you makes it clear that you are directly addressing a group of people. When directly addressing people, the possessive to use is your. Unless, that is, each person is being tasked with convincing a male third party of something, in which case his can be used. This context must already have been established for this usage though.

If you are not directly addressing people, but are instead reporting about a group of people, then you would not use you and your, you would instead use them and their or say "Each one must make up their mind" (without the them).

I would tend to steer clear of his/her in this situation unless it is made clear at the start of the sentence that the group is all male or all female, and even then I might still use their.

3
  • Shouldn't we use His in place of their in the example you gave ? Each one must make up his mind ?
    – user212388
    Commented May 24, 2017 at 15:33
  • @user212388 You can if they are all male. There is no "proper" gender-neutral, third person, singular pronoun, so if they are not all of the same gender, use their.
    – SteveES
    Commented May 24, 2017 at 15:37
  • 1
    @user212388 While it was once acceptable and normal to use male pronouns to refer to someone of indeterminate gender or an individual in a mixed-gender group, in the past few decades that usage has dropped significantly, at least in AmE. Using "his" can come across as both antiquated and sexist. The "singular they" is the most common way to express a gender neutral singular pronoun in modern speech, with "he or she" probably the second most common.
    – PMV
    Commented May 25, 2017 at 1:31
1

Each one of you must make up your mind. Is the correct sentence.

If you say the first then a question rises: Who's mind and how is each one of them going to make it up?

2
  • 1
    This answer is correct but lacks explanation why it is correct.
    – Andrew
    Commented May 24, 2017 at 16:50
  • I believe "his" is also correct, but it's refering to somebody else. (well it's quite illogical to make up someone else mind.) Commented May 24, 2017 at 16:53

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .