Plural “They” or “It”

pronounsusage

I have read an article about Plural They and now I have a question struggling in my mind.
Consider the following sentences:

Each child played with their parent.

Every client got a care package delivered to them.

May I use the pronoun "it" or "it's" in place of "they" or "theirs" like the following ones?

Each child played with it's parent.

Every client got a care package delivered to it.

If it's possible, Isn't it uncommon or odd, somehow?

Best Answer

English has personal and non-personal pronouns.

It is a non-personal pronoun and sounds dehumanizing when you use it to refer to something that's a person. It is used for objects and animals that aren't pets.

Each child played with their parent.

This is what you want to say for this sentence.

Every client got a care package delivered to it.

This would be OK if the client is not a person--for example, if it's a company and you're talking about delivering packages to their front desk to give to the rest of the company.

Every client got a care package delivered to them.

So this is awkward because them refers to a group of things but every client refers to each individual X in a group of things. You should reword the sentence this way:

A care package was delivered to every client.

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