4 ms·
"They" can be singular.
by regularfry 7y ago
"They" can be singular.
- iliasam 7y agoThanks, I have never heard about it.
- regularfry 7y agoNot a problem. Every so often this otherwise unremarkable grammatical point becomes somewhat contentious, but it's easy to see how it can be confusing if English isn't your first language. There's more here: http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002748.html http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/002748.h...
- C1sc0cat 7y agoI just love the line "This use of they isn't ungrammatical, it isn't a mistake, it's a feature of ordinary English syntax that for some reason attracts the ire of particularly puristic pusillanimous pontificators, and we don't buy what they're selling."
- hackonr 7y agoIs it common? I have never seen it in singular context in English grammar textbooks.
- numpad0 7y agoActually incorrect in textbook sense, but widely accepted in recent years to avoid specifying gender.
- C1sc0cat 7y agoFor example "they must have forgotten to add the catch all redirect in the .htaccess file"
- nicoburns 7y agoAlso in less recent years. They has always been used in the singular in cases where gender is not apparent (e.g. with babies)
- regularfry 7y agoAnd also where it is: There's not a man I meet but doth salute me As if I were their well-acquainted friend - A Comedy of Errors, Act IV, Scene 3
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- regularfry 7y agoWidely accepted back at least as far as Shakespeare. The objection that it's incorrect is what's recent.
- Bjartr 7y agoEnglish grammar textbooks started excluding it because doing so made the language more like Latin and this was considered a good thing.
- gsich 7y agoIt's misused for that. It's not correct grammatically and leads to confusion for non-native english speakers.