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# Be careful when using the pronoun ‘one,’ keep it on even when it sounds boring!

## What you need to know:

**The rule is, when you use the pronoun “one”, which is gender-free, you must retain it while referring to it throughout your sentence, your temptation to replace it with, say, “he” or “she” notwithstanding!**

All scribblers make mistakes. Which is why, there’re editors, proofreaders and revise editors, these being gatekeepers who ensure that what the reader picks up at the newsstand or bookshop will be as clean as it can possibly be.

There’s a tendency for gatekeepers to be casual towards the work handed in to them by those viewed as too good to goof. That’s a big mistake, for like I say above, we all make mistakes. And when a mistake appears in some work penned by a “significant” scribbler, the reader may be misled to conclude it’s okay!

Look at the following sentence, written by a seasoned and trusted—or maybe, over-trusted scribbler:

“Life has become so difficult that unless ONE has HIS hands caressing the Government’s or NGOs’ tills, or constantly wagging HIS tail at the boss…OUR lives are hell.”

See? There’s a big goof here. Why, the rule is, when you use the pronoun “one”, which is gender-free, you must retain it while referring to it throughout your sentence, your temptation to replace it with, say, “he” or “she” notwithstanding!

It means, therefore, that the gatekeeper who handled our senior scribbler’s article, if he were conscious that even seasoned wordsmiths make mistakes, would’ve rewritten the sentence to read: “Life has become so difficult that unless ONE has ONE’S hands caressing the Government’s or some NGO’s tills or constantly wagging ONE’s tail at the boss or licking his boots, ONES life is hell.”

We’ll now cross the border and pick up the March 24 edition of Nairobi’s huge tabloid that commands a sizeable readership in Bongo. Here we go…

On its Page 3 story entitled, ‘Listen to us, striking doctors tell Ruto,’ our scribbling colleague purports to quote a trade unionist as saying:

“Most hospitals in Mombasa HAVE SHUT. Only clinical officers are working…there will be a complete shutdown next week…”

Hospitals have shut? No, siree! We say “…hospitals have BEEN shut DOWN.”

Page 6 has a story with the headline, ‘Road carnage: Tough talk, few results’ and in this one, the scribbler writes in regard to directives issued by a one-time minister for Power and Communication:

“By his word, NO tankers NOR heavy commercial vehicles were allowed to be on the roads (sic!) between 6.45pm and 6.45am.”

Whoops! This is an old goof. We say: “neither…nor” or “no…or”. Saying: “No…nor” is not acceptable King Charles III’s mother tongue. It means, the Nairobi scribbler should have thus written:

“By his word, NEITHER tankers NOR heavy commercial vehicles were allowed to be on the ROAD between 6.45pm and 6.45am.” Or…“By his word, NO tankers OR heavy commercial vehicles were allowed to be on the roads between 6.45pm and 6.45am.”

On Page 10 of the tabloid, there’s a story with the headline, ‘DJ, three officers named in death of top detective.’

There’re several gems in this story, but we’ll pick just two, both of which are in the fourth column. Purporting to quote a relative of the departed police officer, the scribbler writes:

“He asked for drinking water and told them that he was dying but they all DENIED until he went for a short call and they saw him passing blood IN URINE.”

I’ll offer a rewrite to rectify the goofs highlighted in capitals:

“He asked for drinking water and told them he was dying but they all DECLINED until he went for a short call and they saw him passing blood IN HIS URINE.”

On Page 23, a scribbler has penned a piece in which she mentions her metallic box of possessions and what its contents were.

“The big box had only a few PAIRS of clothes…”

Pairs of clothes? Nope! Maybe, “sets of clothes.” Or simply, “…a few clothes.” Why, “pair” refers, strictly, to things that come in twos as a matter of course—like a pair of shoes, socks or spectacles.

Ah, this treacherous language called English!