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"They" has also long been used for individuals with known genders too. It might be considered informal, and the kind of thing that editors and style guides fuss

"They" has also long been used for individuals with known genders too. It might be considered informal, and the kind of thing that editors and style guides fuss over and "correct", but that's kind of how new words and usages enter a language. An example from thesaurus.com: > English speakers have been breaking new ground when it comes to they, resourcefully applying this to a specific and known singular, e.g., My best friend from high school is famous now—too bad we didn’t stay in touch after they moved to California.

bloak 3y ago
I can't tell from that example what rule the speaker might be following. Are they perhaps using "they" because the listener doesn't know the friend's gender? I came across another, different case in which a young native speaker of British English used "they" instead of "she": in talking about a hypothetical female person. I asked the speaker why they had used "they" instead of "she" (I can be annoying at times) and they helpfully explained that if they had used "she" then it would have sounded as if the person really existed. (They were talking about a sister they didn't have, or something like that.)
- ZeroGravitas 3y ago
  I think the rule is "it's okay to use they as a singular for individuals with known gender" and while that rule might not make it into styleguides (yet) I see it regularly in actual speech. "You two, stop fighting" "But they started it!"
  - bloak 3y ago
    "It's okay" isn't what I mean by a "rule": I'm talking about the kind of "rule" that tells me (or any other speaker) when to use "they". There certainly are people using "they" when they know the gender, but they don't use "they" in every case, as far as I can tell, so presumably they are following some kind of rule with conditions in it (because people don't, in practice, choose pronouns at random).

bloak 3y ago

I can't tell from that example what rule the speaker might be following. Are they perhaps using "they" because the listener doesn't know the friend's gender? I came across another, different case in which a young native speaker of British English used "they" instead of "she": in talking about a hypothetical female person. I asked the speaker why they had used "they" instead of "she" (I can be annoying at times) and they helpfully explained that if they had used "she" then it would have sounded as if the person really existed. (They were talking about a sister they didn't have, or something like that.)

ZeroGravitas 3y ago
I think the rule is "it's okay to use they as a singular for individuals with known gender" and while that rule might not make it into styleguides (yet) I see it regularly in actual speech. "You two, stop fighting" "But they started it!"
- bloak 3y ago
  "It's okay" isn't what I mean by a "rule": I'm talking about the kind of "rule" that tells me (or any other speaker) when to use "they". There certainly are people using "they" when they know the gender, but they don't use "they" in every case, as far as I can tell, so presumably they are following some kind of rule with conditions in it (because people don't, in practice, choose pronouns at random).