They said that it was/is a stolen phone so he'd/he'll have to...

[Rover_KE]

Okay I think I remember posting about this. And the conclusion was that 'guys' is gender neutral when used this way.

If there's any possibility that a form of address might upset somebody, avoid using it and find a different one.

You're a girl named Charlie? I'm taken aback! But then again I'm not American.

Nobody said Charlie Bernstein was female, and anyway, lots of females called Charlotte or Charlene choose to be known as Charlie.

 

[GoesStation]

"We're not all guys."
I thought one could infer that the speaker isn't a guy either.

No. Suppose I'm part of a mixed group of people. They aren't all guys. Does that tell you anything about my gender, beyond the inference that I could be male or female?

 

[emsr2d2]

If you want to quote multiple posts, look in the bottom right hand corner of each post and you will see a small box (next to "Reply with Quote") that looks like quotation marks and a plus sign. Click on that on any post you want to use as part of a multi-quote. Tick as many as you need. When you reach the last post you want to quote, click "Reply With Quote" instead. The resulting text box will include all the posts you chose, in separate quote boxes.

 

[Ashraful Haque]

If there's any possibility that a form of address might upset somebody, avoid using it and find a different one.

Thanks for the advice. But these days it's very difficult to tell what offends who.

 

[emsr2d2]

"We're not all guys."
I thought one could infer that the speaker isn't a guy either.

No, that's not the case. "We" here simply means "All the users on the forum".

As far as "guys" goes, I always recommend that my students avoid using it as it can be misinterpreted or people might assume they have made a language error. In my real life, however, I use "guys" a lot with my friends of both sexes. I wouldn't use it with a group of people I didn't know.

 

[Ashraful Haque]

"I am disgusted by the fact that she didn't tell me she is/was married before we started seeing each other." (Note- she's still married)




I'm confused since I was told that it's better to keep the whole sentence in past. But doesn't 'was' make it sound like she was married but not anymore?

 

[GoesStation]

I'm confused since I was told that it's better to keep the whole sentence in past. But doesn't 'was' make it sound like she was married but not anymore?

Use "was". This is a common example of backshifting.

 

[Ashraful Haque]

Use "was". This is a common example of backshifting.

I see. But doesn't saying "I am disgusted by the fact that she didn't tell me she was married before we started seeing each other" open it up to misinterpretation that she was married before but she's divorced now?

 

[Ashraful Haque]

No. If the woman had been married and had then divorced, your sentence would read "I am disgusted by the fact that she didn't tell me she had been married before we started seeing each other".

Wow! Thanks a lot. I think I'm going to post a question about this.

 

[Rover_KE]

Good idea.

Thread closed.