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[-] Nougat@fedia.io 32 points 4 days ago

“Singular They” has been in use since at least Early Modern English.

[-] GuyDudeman@lemmy.world 13 points 4 days ago

Right? I feel like I’m not taking my anti-crazy pills every time I hear people get mad about not using he/she. It’s just so easy to use “they” and it makes perfect sense. And we should just use it permanently for everyone.

[-] chicken@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

My main problem with it is the namespace ambiguity, especially with respect to plurality. For simple statements it's fine, if you're saying something about one person it's going to be clear they are the one you refer to. If you're talking about their relationship to a group though, unlike a singular pronoun it is no longer explicit that you refer to them but not them, for instance. You compensate for this by making sure your meaning is clear in other ways and it can be made to work, but the fact you have to put in extra effort to make up for "they"'s relative lack of structural utility is a serious problem with the word.

I still use it for lack of a better way to avoid implying knowledge/relevance of gender, but it would be nice if some overtly singular gender neutral pronoun like xe would catch on.

[-] chocosoldier 1 points 4 days ago

people who take it/its pronouns are incredibly based

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this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2024
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