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Should I use HIS or THEIR in the sentence:

Which of the students of your group does __________ homework together?

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  • The only way it could be his with a single person and together is if he has multiple personalities …
    – Jason Bassford
    Nov 24, 2019 at 7:12

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"Their" because the subject is "which". "Which" can be either singular or plural, but in this case it is definitely to be understood as plural because of the word "together". Doing homework together certainly implies more than one participant.

The verb in the sentence should also be plural, "do". So the correct sentence should be:

Which of the students of your group do their homework together?

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Their. Because it is about "the students". It is from meaning of this sentence.

From other hand, if you put "his" in this place in sentence, this would be depend on more wide context. But for this sentence, without anything else - more logical choice is "their".

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    The answer by Lorel C. is much better. Consider this question: Which of the students in your group left his gloves on the table? We do not need to use their instead of his in that sentence.
    – J.R. ♦
    Nov 20, 2019 at 15:25
  • Don't agree with you. Because, more wide context of your example can be about some specific situation, when this "his" have a important meaning.
    – sayfriend
    Nov 20, 2019 at 15:33
  • I was trying to teach you some tips for helping you better understand English, since clearly you could use the help. But if you want to cling to your mistaken beliefs, well, that's your call.
    – J.R. ♦
    Nov 20, 2019 at 15:38
  • This is right, but when you say "his", this is about male student only? This is about more wide context, isn't?
    – sayfriend
    Nov 20, 2019 at 15:45
  • Correct, to use "his" context would indicate this must be a male student. (Perhaps we are in an all-male school, or perhaps the gloves clearly belong to a man.) If you want to say that their is a good choice when you don't know the gender of the person (a.k.a. "singular they"), that would be a legitimate argument. However, your answer doesn't mention gender or singular they.
    – J.R. ♦
    Nov 20, 2019 at 22:31

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