Does it? In the event of an unknown gender, "He is going to the store." implies (possibly falsely) that the target is male. At best, it leaves that ambiguous. O

Does it? In the event of an unknown gender, "He is going to the store." implies (possibly falsely) that the target is male. At best, it leaves that ambiguous. On the other hand "They are going to the store" leaves the number of people going to the store ambiguous, but does not imply any false information. It seems to me at worst "they" is equally non-specific. Sure a clear, singular non-gendered pronoun would be better, but in the absence of such a thing existing, "they" actually seems better than "he" in this context. Edit: I'd also point out, singular "they" has existed since at least the 14th century, so it's not like anyone is attempting to modify the language by encouraging it's usage.