2 ms·

Yeah, that Shakespeare guy screwed up everything when he used "they" as a singular pronoun.

• derefr 10y ago
  The early-Modern "they" means "one or more people"—as in, it can be singular or plural, as you wish. Shakespeare still would use "he" or "she" as appropriate when trying to make it explicit that there was exactly one person being referred to. But now, we are told to use "they" or "he/she" even in that situation, because singular-generic "he" is offensive to some people, and because human-referential "it" is offensive to rather more people.