2 ms·
The singular "they" has been in use since the 14th century[1]. But there are plenty of people who speak English as a second language, where their mother tongue
by cyphar 7y ago
The singular "they" has been in use since the 14th century[1]. But there are plenty of people who speak English as a second language, where their mother tongue has gendered nouns (which includes effectively all European languages except English) -- so it's very hard for them to get over the mental hurdle of having to constantly reference gender in speech. For instance, in Serbian (my mother tongue) you cannot speak in a gender-neutral way because all verbs have different suffixes depending on the gender of the subject.
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they
- i_am_proteus 7y agoIt's been around for centuries, but if you're over 25, you were probably taught that it was wrong.
- cyphar 7y agoI'm 22, and grew up in Australia -- the concept of singular "they" never sounded strange to me growing up (but I also don't ever recall being specifically taught that it was correct or incorrect). My parents remarked that it was weird that English had this concept which was so foreign to them -- but they probably ran across it when they were getting more fluent in English. I've never met someone (in person) who has had a strong opinion against the use of singular "they" (though I do know they clearly exist, Stallman being an obvious example). I wonder if it's a cultural difference between where I live in Australia and the US, or if I happened to fall into a filter-bubble of people who aren't against the concept.