How about "the desperate cries", this makes it nice and neutral so it does not matter if it's a something or a someone. On 28 January 2010 22:08, Simon Osborne <outspaced@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On 28/01/2010 17:51, Benjamin I Krefetz wrote: >> >> On Thu, 28 Jan 2010, pamail.cgi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: >> >>> The following was sent from the Editor's Companion form >>> From: Jan Charv?t <ch.honza@xxxxxxxxxx> >>> Date: 13:08:14 on Thursday, January 28, 2010 >>> >>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >>> >>> >>> (er) 03tcok 244: their desperate cries -> its desperate cries >>> >>> >>> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ >>> >> >> Oooh. This is an interesting one. The antecedent is "someone or >> something". If "someone" is the more important part of the antecedent, >> it should be left as-is, but if "something" is the more important part, >> it should be changed to "its". >> >> My gut instinct is to make agreement with "someone" and leave as-is, but >> only because "someone" comes first. > > I basically came to the same conclusion, that this should be left alone. I > have no idea whether there's an actual rule about it, though; I'm going > purely from gut instinct! > > -- > Simon Osborne > Project Aon > > ~~~~~~ > Manage your subscription at //www.freelists.org/list/projectaon > > > ~~~~~~ Manage your subscription at //www.freelists.org/list/projectaon