There is a simple, elegant solution to the “he/his/him” versus “he or she/his or her/him or her” problem (“Who really wins the Great Pronoun War?” Jan. 19): “they/their/them.”

Any good dictionary will support this usage, which has existed for centuries, although some very old-fashioned (mostly male) grammarians object to it. Note, for example, entry No. 2 under Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary definition for the adjective “their:” “1: of or relating to them or themselves as possessors, agents or objects of an action . . . 2: his or her: HIS, HER, ITS — used with an indefinite third person singular antecedent: ‘Anyone in their senses – W. H. Auden'”

Like Auden, I find “Everyone is entitled to their own opinion” so much better than “Everyone is entitled to his own opinion” or “Everyone is entitled to his or her own opinion.”

Laurent Hodges

Professor

Physics and Astronomy