Them, Their: It’s! (Nods To E Nesbit.)

Some years ago when I lived in Sweden, I was told that in the main language of neighbouring Finland (i.e. Finnish, as opposed to Swedish, which is also an official language there) there are only two pronouns: one personal, denoting ‘he/she’ for people; and one impersonal, denoting ‘it’ for inanimate objects.

This, I felt, was a straightforward and sensible state of affairs and would also make writing far easier, because it disposes with the perennial awkwardness of personal pronouns when the...