My English teacher back in highschool was very picky about using “they” like most people do. I can hear him say “you have to use FORMAL LANGUAGE” in my head still lol
If it’s an unknown person we were told to use “he or she” instead of “they” and “his or her” instead of “their” despite the fact that no one fucking talks that way when referring to an unknown individual.
Like even saying “everyone should bring their laptop to class” would be marked wrong because “everyone” is singular so the “correct” version is “everyone should bring his or her laptop to class” which imo is way more confusing
However, he was also fine with us using masculine singular pronouns when the gender of a person wasn’t known, which I guess is kind of the case in like Spanish and some other Latin languages but still, just really weird rules
so the “correct” version is “everyone should bring his or her laptop to class” which imo is way more confusing
Only if you’re used to hearing it the wrong way.
‘Emails’[sic] probably sounds more ‘correct’ to you, even though it’s like ‘deers’ and ‘happies’.
They usually only use it for unknown people though, which is why it sounds strange to them to use for a known person.
They don’t now what they talkin bout
Of course they do, especially when the number of people is ambiguous or when they are speaking about someone titled as a profession such as “I went to the doctor and they said…”
It is all a manufactured situation used to push hate and attack the marginalised. Singular they has been around for a very long time and there were options before they was they, not to mention in all the other myriad languages in the world.
Honestly I’ve always just put it down to another fault of the English language being weird. There should be a more concise word for a singular person where the gender is not defined, but there just isn’t so people use “they”.
It’s acceptable to me if the number of people isn’t known but in your case of the doctor I would not find it ideal but acceptable just because there isn’t another proper word if you don’t want to / can’t use the word he/she.
To me in an ideal world They would strictly be for multiple people or an unknown number, and another word for those who don’t identify as he/she or for cases where gender isn’t relevant like title professions and whatnot.
Chinese language is gender neutral:
他 (tā) - he/she/
it, singular
(Edit: “it” is actually “它”, but its the same pronunciation)
他们 (tā mén) - they, pluralSo simple… there’s no fuss about pronouns lmfao
Imagine all the problems that would go away if the US just used a better language xD
it genuinely causes confusion though, someone told me “they” (a different person), were going to be there early and I was like “they’re all going to come early?!”
‘You’ has a similar ambiguity, being a plural word originally, but most people muddle through that.
I do think we should bring back thee/thy/thou as singular, but whatever.
Skill issue. Sounds like they need to hear it more often tbh.
But for a linking word. It’s a comma splice.
Since both clauses are interdependent and incorrect on their own, the join here with merely a comma is entirely proper and not a comma slice
Rich guy has thoughts about us plebs.
