How long has it been since we talked grammar? Too long, I’m thinking. So let’s not waste any more time.
A frequent source of confusion for a lot of people is what to call all these college graduates that seem to have appeared out of nowhere. It used to be simple: one man was an alumnus, a group of men were alumni; one woman was an alumna, a group of women were alumnae.
But in an era when neutrality reigns supreme—it was just just last year, after all, that Sweden introduced the genderless pronoun “hen”—we’ve apparently decided that “alumnus” and “alumni” are now unisex terms for all graduates. (But if you have trouble remembering the rules for singular and plural, “alum” will do.)
So are there still freshmen in college? Or are they now freshpersons?
by Laszlo