The "They" Argument

[Road Runner]

I'm currently having a debate with iamwhatiseem in another thread, and so that we wouldn't derail the thread,.. isn't the word "they" both a singular and plural usage?



Example:


1. They went to the store.


OR


1. He went to the store.




Yes it's true that in the first example you don't know how many people "they" is, but both usages are correct. English is my best subject so I do believe that I know this stuff.

 

[Mashmont]

I'm currently having a debate with iamwhatiseem in another thread, and so that we wouldn't derail the thread,.. isn't the word "they" both a singular and plural usage?



Example:


1. They went to the store.


OR


1. He went to the store.




Yes it's true that in the first example you don't know how many people "they" is, but both usages are correct. English is my best subject so I do believe that I know this stuff.

Iam is correct, except the PC left has now demanded sex pronouns be dropped, such that all are called 'they' regardless of the number. However, I don't play the PC game, and I will continute to say "he" for the singular generic.

 

[Road Runner]

Iam is correct,

Umm,.. actually I'm the one who said it but Iam disagrees.

 

[iamwhatiseem]

I'm currently having a debate with iamwhatiseem in another thread, and so that we wouldn't derail the thread,.. isn't the word "they" both a singular and plural usage?



Example:


1. They went to the store.


OR


1. He went to the store.




Yes it's true that in the first example you don't know how many people "they" is, but both usages are correct. English is my best subject so I do believe that I know this stuff.

You are still wrong... and you know it.
They is only correct if you don't know who the person is.
Like the example I gave... if someone broke something in a room, and you did not know who it was - you might say "why did they do this". But if you knew, say "Bob" did it... you would say "why did he do this?"
No one says "they" when they know who the person is. English is not as "sexed" as Spanish. But when we know the sex of an individual we say he or she, or him or her.
And BTW - I live in a college town. And there are a lot of trans here. If a biological male is dresses like a woman, I will say she or her to avoid conflict. I will not say they. Screw that. That is nonsense.

 

[Road Runner]

I rarely do this but tagging Golfing Gator so he can enjoy the show lol as I didn't know that grammar was about making your own rules.

 

[Harpy Eagle]

I rarely do this but tagging Golfing Gator so he can enjoy the show lol as I didn't know that grammar was about making your own rules.

Thanks. This will be fun.

I wonder just how many people will show up and be triggered by the little four letter word "they".

 

[Mr Natural]

They went to the store = more than one person went to the store.

He went to the store = one person went to the store.

 

[johngaltshrugged]

They is plural.
Example for singular:
Where is Joe?
He is getting a diaper change

For plural:
Where are Joe & Mitch?
They are collecting bribes

 

[TheParser]

As I understand it, one should use the pronoun "they" or "their" for a gender fluid person.

Sometimes Joe is a male; sometimes, a female.

So one should say something like "I visited Joe yesterday. They were very happy to see me. They showed me their new car that they had bought."

 

[whitehall]

Much ado about nothing except for "he went to the store" and "he went to the store in a dress". It's still "he".

 

[iamwhatiseem]

All this because a virtue signaler said "they" about a video where a woman hit a woman, and I looked at the video a second time because I though maybe someone else hit her - because Gator said "they".
Simply saying she - and all this woulda never happened

 

[JoeMoma]

Example : He (Bob) got a tan because they (Bob and his family) went to the beach.

They is a plural pronoun. Sometimes "they" is used when it's not know whether it's antecedent is plural or singular.

 

[JoeMoma]

I am not without sin when it comes to grammar and I am a terrible speller.

 

[JoeMoma]

Example : He (Bob) got a tan because they (Bob and his family) went to the beach.

They is a plural pronoun. Sometimes "they" is used when it's not know whether it's antecedent is plural or singular.

That being said, It grinds my gears when people say "I" when they should say "me" and "me" when they should say "I". "I" is the subjective case and "me" is the objective case.

 

[BackAgain]

It USED to be that “they” designated plural. If you said “they went to the beach,” it was conveying that two or more people went to the beach.

Nowadays, it might designate singular but the person who is being spoken about doesn’t identify as a male or as a female. So, oddly, we are morphing the language to use plural to indicate non-gender specificity.

Prove me wrong with science.

 

[JoeMoma]

It USED to be that “they” designated plural. If you said “they went to the beach,” it was conveying that two or more people went to the beach.

Nowadays, it might designate singular but the person who is being spoken about doesn’t identify as a male or as a female. So, oddly, we are morphing the language to use plural to indicate non-gender specificity.

Prove me wrong with science.

Perhaps there is some logic to using "they" to represent a "nonbinary" person who might be male one moment and female the next. Since that person is kind of exhibiting multiple personalities, "they" is kind of appropriate. I say this tongue in cheek.

 

[BackAgain]

Perhaps there is some logic to using "they" to represent a "nonbinary" person who might be male one moment and female the next. Since that person is kind of exhibiting multiple personalities, "they" is kind of appropriate. I say this tongue in cheek.

I grok that.

 

[Pellinore]

There is no debate here. English speakers have been using the singular "they" for centuries.

Set aside all of the modern gender definitions for a moment; think back twenty years, or whatever. We use "he" or "she" for a single male or a single female, but for a single person whose gender is unknown, we use the singular "they." In yet another bit of English-language weirdness, the singular "they" then also takes plural agreeing verbs. So ...

"Someone's coming up the street, and they'll be here in five minutes." (The person's gender is unknown, thus 'they.')
"Bob's cousin is coming to the party, and they are bringing a bottle of wine." (The singular 'they' takes the plural verb 'are.')

It's a strange corner of the language, but it's absolutely nothing new.

 

[frigidweirdo]

I'm currently having a debate with iamwhatiseem in another thread, and so that we wouldn't derail the thread,.. isn't the word "they" both a singular and plural usage?



Example:


1. They went to the store.


OR


1. He went to the store.




Yes it's true that in the first example you don't know how many people "they" is, but both usages are correct. English is my best subject so I do believe that I know this stuff.

Yes, it is.
If you don't want to say the gender of a person, you can use they for the singular.

For example:
"I'm going to the mall with a friend of mine, they're my best friend".

 

[hjmick]

"Much has been written on they, and we aren’t going to attempt to cover it here. We will note that they has been in consistent use as a singular pronoun since the late 1300s; that the development of singular they mirrors the development of the singular you from the plural you, yet we don’t complain that singular you is ungrammatical; and that regardless of what detractors say, nearly everyone uses the singular they in casual conversation and often in formal writing.

They is taking on a new use, however: as a pronoun of choice for someone who doesn’t identify as either male or female. This is a different use than the traditional singular they, which is used to refer to a person whose gender isn’t known or isn’t important in the context, as in the example above. The new use of they is direct, and it is for a person whose gender is known or knowable, but who does not identify as male or female. If I were introducing a friend who preferred to use the pronoun they, I would say, “This is my friend, Jay. I met them at work.”

If you’re someone who has a binary gender (that is, who identifies as male or female) and you’ve never encountered the nonbinary they before, it may feel a little weird. Or you may think it’s unnecessary. You may be confused by all the new terminology (though there’s help out there for you). Yet we’ve been searching for a nonbinary pronoun for quite a while now.

There have always been people who didn’t conform to an expected gender expression, or who seemed to be neither male nor female. But we’ve struggled to find the right language to describe these people—and in particular, the right pronouns. In the 17th century, English laws concerning inheritance sometimes referred to people who didn’t fit a gender binary using the pronoun it, which, while dehumanizing, was conceived of as being the most grammatically fit answer to gendered pronouns around then. Adopting the already-singular they is vastly preferable."

Source:

Singular 'They'

Though singular 'they' is old, 'they' as a nonbinary pronoun is new—and useful

www.merriam-webster.com

This should end the debate, but somehow I doubt that it will...