Each person have or each person has?
And more: Each person have/has its own way to learn or each person have/has his own way to learn?
I'm asking this because I found some contradictions on the internet and I'm here to get a more concise answer.
Thanks in advance!
You can use any of these alternatives,
Each person has his own way ...
Each person has his or her own way ...
Each person has her1 own way ...
Each person has their own way ...
When I was young, Each person has his ... was common. Then, the preferred usage changed to Each person has his or her ... and later Each person has her1 ....
Nowadays, singular they is also acceptable.
See also: Is there a correct gender-neutral, singular pronoun (“his” versus “her” versus “their”)?
1Also note that even though you can use her as a pronoun for someone who you don't know his or her gender, it's better to use his or her or singular their in general, unless they are all female.
"Each person has ..." "Each" is a singular noun. When we use "each" we are considering people one at a time, so we use the singular. It's something like saying "One out of a million is ..." Even though there's a set of a million to choose from, at the moment we're only discussing one.
We don't say "each person have its ..." We don't normally use "it" to refer to people. People are "he" or "she" or "they". There are just a few exceptions to this for unknown people. Like if someone asks whether an unknown person is male or female, we may reply, "It's a man" or "It's a woman". Though we more often say, "He's a man" or "She's a woman." We also sometimes use "it" in questions about an unknown person, like "Who is it?"
As Damkerng says: There's an old convention that when the gender is unknown, use the masculine. So you would say, "Each person has his ..." if the group is male, is a mix of males and females, or is known. You would only say "Each person has her ..." if the group was all female or was a group that is normally thought of as female.
Using the masculine for both male and female is considered sexist by some, so now it is common to say "he or she", or to use "they" as a singular pronoun for a person of unknown gender. "Each person has their ..."
English unfortunately does not have gender independent pronouns. One must know that and all the people who think using he/she in a sentence meant for a general person does not mean it is sexist. The language does not give the liberty to decide gender in pronouns.
The answer to the question would be: Use a verb like say will and make the sentence - Every person will have his/her own way to learn.
To avoid the embarrassment of choosing his or her, more and more Americans prefer the use of plurals forms, especially plural pronouns.
Then always say "each....has their..." can be the most straightforward solution.
