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The writers in that department write like they never read a book in their lives.

The writers in that department write like they never read a book in their life.

Is the second sentence grammatically correct? Even though the rules of grammar suggest the first is the sentence one should choose, is the second sentence acceptable?

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    Logically, you might think that since "they" here are plural "writers", the reference should be to their "lives". But note this typical usage: The men always wore a nice dark suit and tie with a hat on their head. Lots of native speakers don't care about "consistency of plurality" in such contexts - especially when the intended meaning is obvious (we know we're talking about what each individual writer has or hasn't done in his individual life). Consider We all raised our right hand.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Dec 24, 2021 at 17:48
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    I would say that "We all raised our right hand" is simply wrong, although not too uncommon an error. It should be either "We all raised our right hands" or "We each raised our right hand."
    – David Siegel
    Commented Dec 24, 2021 at 19:18
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    Does this answer your question? "Everyone has their own stories" vs "Everyone has their own story" - which one is correct?
    – MarcInManhattan
    Commented Nov 5, 2022 at 1:23
  • Writers is plural. Their is plural, and so it must be "lives" plural.
    – Billy Kerr
    Commented Jul 8, 2023 at 16:51

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No, the second sentence is never acceptable. "Writers" is plural, so "their lives" must be plural.

Note however that if you were using the gender-neutral singular "they" to refer to a person of unknown, irrelevant, or non-binary gender, the singular "life" would be appropriate, to match with the (in that case) singular "writer."

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