I have a confusion about how to use 'one' as a pronoun.
For example:
One should not let one's thoughts to be so liberal as to lead them astray.
One should not let their thoughts to be so liberal as to lead them astray.
One should not let one's thoughts to be so liberal as to lead one astray.

Can anyone tell me if anything is wrong with these sentences as i am not a native speaker and am having difficulty building up such sentences.
Can anyone explain the rules to me?Thanks

Question

I have a confusion about how to use 'one' as a pronoun.
For example:
One should not let one's thoughts to be so liberal as to lead them astray.
One should not let their thoughts to be so liberal as to lead them astray.
One should not let one's thoughts to be so liberal as to lead one astray.

Can anyone tell me if anything is wrong with these sentences as i am not a native speaker and am having difficulty building up such sentences.
Can anyone explain the rules to me?Thanks

Answer

One should not ALLOW one's thoughts to be so liberal as to lead them astray.
One should not ALLOW their thoughts to be so liberal as to lead them astray.
One should not ALLOW one's thoughts to be so liberal as to lead one astray.

All are correct. The impersonal pronoun in English is quite tricky. You can say any of the following:
you; we; they; people.

Here are other ways of writing the sentence:
A person should not ALLOW his thoughts to be so liberal as to lead him astray.
A person should not ALLOW their thoughts to be so liberal as to lead them astray.

They use of "they/them" is quite permissible here.

Answers · 1

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