[Grammar] A method to avoid repeating "His or Her"

[behxrad]

Hi, lately, I've had some problems with substituting pronoun phrase "His or her". For example

"A young person must try to achieve his or her goals".

I want to know, is there a solution for this. I don't want to repeat this phrase permanently. Could you please introduce me an alternative? :-(

 

[bhaisahab]

Use "their".

 

[Matthew Wai]

Is it OK to say 'A young one must try to achieve one's goals'?

 

[bhaisahab]

No, it's not.

 

[MikeNewYork]

It is very common these days to use the plural pronoun "their" as a singular to avoid the gender problem. If that bothers you, you can recast the sentence in the plural. "Young people must try to achieve their goals".

 

[emsr2d2]

Is it OK to say 'A young one must try to achieve one's goals'?

No. "One's" simply means "a person's". You can't use it in place of a personal pronoun.

 

[Matthew Wai]

'A young person must try to achieve one's goals.'

Is it wrong too?

 

[Rover_KE]

Yes.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Matthew, you could say "One must try to achieve one's goals." But that loses the part about being young.