: How to refer to a group having 3 men and 1 woman I am rewriting a story that once had a group of 4 men. Throughout the story they were often referred to as the 4 men. Now the story is

I am rewriting a story that once had a group of 4 men. Throughout the story they were often referred to as the 4 men. Now the story is being updated to replace one of the male characters with a female. Now that the group is not all men, it does not seem proper to continue referring to them in various places as "the men". For example:

"The 4 men ran across the bridge."

While all characters are friends I don't think I want to refer to them as "the four friends." Using the above sample sentence as a guide you can see what I mean:

"The 4 friends ran across the bridge."

Since there is only one women in the group I'm not sure I like the following reference either:

"The 4 men and woman ran across the bridge."

I'm looking for some common solution to this reference problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

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@Tiffany377

As Sarah Stark said, referring to a specific number of people over and over again is sloppy style as-is. It's the kind of thing Dan Brown does, and while his works are very marketable and page-turning, they're not known for their stylistic elegance.

Just say 'the group' ran over the bridge, 'the party', heck 'they' will work most of the time if the reader already knows 'they' refers to the group.

Don't be the guy to make every character into 'the 162cm man' or 'the white-haired woman', because it reads as amateurish.

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@Murray165

It seems a little odd to keep repeating the specific number of people in the group over and over. And there are a lot of synonyms for "group" (including the word "group" itself) that are not limited to a gender.

"The ___ ran over the bridge" could be filled with tons of words, such as:

group, party, characters, adventurers, explorers, warriors, people, etc.

Depending on your story, warriors might not be appropriate! but there are tons of variations of group names that would substitute for "The men ran over the bridge."

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: How to refer to a group having 3 men and 1 woman I am rewriting a story that once had a group of 4 men. Throughout the story they were often referred to as the 4 men. Now the story is

More posts by @Ravi5107385

: Is there a story structure for a non-traditional hero (an extreme introvert)? I'm trying to write a story of transformation, in which an extremely introverted and non-confrontational person goes

: Advice for a "Gift of Words" So we have a friend, having a milestone birthday, and his wife requested that we provide a gift of words. This friend is about the age of my children, and

: Another level of dissonance you will need to address is how modern psychology regards her "religious visions" and her belief that God is acting directly through her. A modern secular assessment

: The character of Death in Federico GarcÃa Lorca's Blood Wedding (Bodas de Sangre) is not supposed to be credited in the program. I note that she (Death being a beggar-woman in the play)

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: How to refer to a group having 3 men and 1 woman I am rewriting a story that once had a group of 4 men. Throughout the story they were often referred to as the 4 men. Now the story is

More posts by @Ravi5107385

: Is there a story structure for a non-traditional hero (an extreme introvert)? I'm trying to write a story of transformation, in which an extremely introverted and non-confrontational person goes

: Advice for a "Gift of Words" So we have a friend, having a milestone birthday, and his wife requested that we provide a gift of words. This friend is about the age of my children, and

: Another level of dissonance you will need to address is how modern psychology regards her "religious visions" and her belief that God is acting directly through her. A modern secular assessment

: The character of Death in Federico GarcÃ­a Lorca's Blood Wedding (Bodas de Sangre) is not supposed to be credited in the program. I note that she (Death being a beggar-woman in the play)

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2 Comments

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: The character of Death in Federico GarcÃa Lorca's Blood Wedding (Bodas de Sangre) is not supposed to be credited in the program. I note that she (Death being a beggar-woman in the play)