Nobody......, they......?????

[harbinger]

Hi Erin,

I am confused with this question:

Nobody had bothered to plant new ones, had they??

You said that, using "they" here was wrong in Standard English.

How about the following sentence:

Almost nobody comes to these meetings, but they always want to see the minutes.

Do you think this sentence is also wrong ?


Thank you very much.

Harbinger

[Vaya]

HI!

My book (I trust it a lot, but it is English English book) tells that in question tags everyone / someone / anyone / no one, etc. changes into 'they' (the book gives an example: someone is knocking at the door, aren't they? -- I admit, it looks odd). I think this is the way how to escape from 'politically incorrect' language.

BTW, abpout politically correct language: did you know that we should say 'vertically chalenged' instead of 'short', 'dwarf' or something like this?

Best luck, Renata