668
Singular they rule (pawb.social)
submitted 1 year ago by FlowerTree@pawb.social to c/196

ALT TEXT:

  • Panel 1: A person with the text "Singular 'they'" written on them smiling with open arms.
  • Panel 2: "Singular 'They'" beaten up by others who said, "Singular they is ungrammatical. It's too confusing," "How can anyone use plural pronouns for singular," and "Every pronoun should only have one purpose."
  • Panel 3: "You" hiding from the mob who was beating "Singular 'They'"
  • Panel 4: "German 'Sie'" hiding with even more fear next to "You"
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] lugal@lemmy.one 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Actually it's older than people think. Shakespeare used it for stuff like "Every knight grabbed their sword", and even for talking about a specific person it's not a new phenomenon to use singular they if the gender doesn't matter (so I was told in a linguistics sub over on r*ddit when I insisted it was new)

The only new thing is that people say, it's their prefered pronoun.

this post was submitted on 24 Jul 2023
668 points (100.0% liked)

196

16718 readers
2498 users here now

Be sure to follow the rule before you head out.

Rule: You must post before you leave.

^other^ ^rules^

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS