- published: 14 Oct 2022
- views: 891575
Singular they
Singular they is the use in English of the pronoun they, or its inflected or derivative forms, such as them, their, themself, or themselves, as a gender-neutral pronoun to refer to a single person or an antecedent that is grammatically singular. It typically occurs with an antecedent of indeterminate gender, as in sentences such as:
The singular they had emerged by the mid-14th century and is common in everyday spoken English, but its use has been the target of criticism since the late nineteenth century. Its use in formal English has increased with the trend toward gender-inclusive language.
Inflected forms and derivative pronouns
Singular they has the same inflected forms as the "normal", plural they, i.e. them and their. They are usually both used with the same verb forms, i.e. "when I tell someone a joke they laughs" would be non-standard.
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Singular_they
Podcasts:
-
Let's Talk About Singular They.
A sequel to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQNdkdqoIdw Thanks to my patrons!! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=73482298 Special thanks to Calvin for pestering me until I made this video. Sources: Baron, D. (1981-2015). The Words that Failed: A chronology of early nonbinary pronouns. Baron, D. (1986). Grammar and Gender. New Haven. Baron, D. (2018). A brief history of singular ‘they’. Oxford English Dictionary Blogs. Fisher, A. (1745). A New Grammar [2nd ed. 1750]. Newcastle upon Tyne. Gerner, J. (1998). Singular and Plural Anaphors of Indefinite Personal Pronouns in Spoken British English. Corpora Galore: Analyses and Techniques in Describing English: Papers from the Nineteenth International Conference on English Language Research on Computerised Corpora. Graham, S. (2001). Sula...
published: 14 Oct 2022 -
BONUS VIDEO | Singular They | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy
Courses on Khan Academy are always 100% free. Start practicing—and saving your progress—now: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/parts-of-speech-the-pronoun/indefinite-pronouns-pronoun-vagueness-and-emphatic-pronouns/v/singular-they You may have been hearing a lot about the "singular they" recently. But what is it? How does it work, what is its history, and is it grammatical? Let's find out. Watch the next lesson: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/partsofspeech/the-modifier/v/intro-to-adjectives-v1?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=Desc&utm_campaign=grammar Missed the previous lesson? https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/partsofspeech/the-pronoun/v/emphatic-pronouns-the-parts-of-speech-grammar?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=Desc&utm_campaign=grammar Grammar on Khan...
published: 05 May 2016 -
The Singular THEY (why we use THEY for just one person)
Is it correct to use THEY for just one person? Want to learn about the SINGULAR THEY? This video explains why we use the pronouns THEY and THEM when only talking about one person. I'm Teacher Mike, and I'm an English (ESL/EFL) teacher from the United States. I'm currently posting 3 videos each week (Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday)(Tuesday is a LIVE video), so if you're interested in improving your English, make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so that you see all of my new videos. Also, my ebook "How to Practice Speaking English by Yourself and Why Everyone Should Do It" is finally available on Amazon. If you're interested, here is the link https://a.co/d/06M5faZ And don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Threads (and check out my website)! https://w...
published: 10 Jun 2024 -
Singular "They"
This video explains when it is appropriate to treat "they," "them," "their," "theirs," and "themselves" as singular. It is covers the new word "themself." This video is linked to the following lesson on Grammar Monster: https://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/his_her_their_they_singular_plural.htm
published: 12 Jun 2023 -
The exciting problem with singular "they"
Originally posted: 10/16/2022 What will the “y’all” of “they” be? 😆🤷♀️ Transcription: Here's the problem with they being a singular pronoun. First off, it is singular. It's plural, too, but we're way past it making sense for someone to correct your grammar when you use they to mean an individual person. Is Jezebel joining us? No. They went apple picking. Zero grammar errors there. But here's the problem. It creates a grammatical vacuum in our language, because we no longer have a distinct third person plural pronoun. This isn't bad, but it can be confusing. For example, Jezebel went apple picking with Delilah. She'll be joining us later. We know from that sentence who we're meeting up with. Jezebel, awesome. She's amazing. But wait, I'm sorry. Jezebel's pronouns are they/them. So, let m...
published: 17 Oct 2022 -
Singular 'they' / Practice English with Paul
Click here to find my unique posts on the English language: http://vk.com/id290352757. Singular 'they' Hello my friends and welcome to Practice English with Paul. Today it’s grammar; it is the singular ‘they’. Now this is a mistake many of my students have made over the years in their essays especially at FCE, even surprisingly sometimes, CAE. You should not be making this kind of mistake at CAE. Now we know the word ‘they’ the pronoun and it is followed by a plural verb. They are…. They like….. They were…. But sometimes we use the pronoun ‘they’ with a singular noun. Now let’s have a look at how this works, so we can avoid making mistakes in the future. They/them/their. We use them after nouns of unidentified people or a job whose role is a man or a woman and there is no way of knowing ...
published: 22 Jun 2015 -
"What Is Singular They?": Oregon State Guide to Grammar
This video describes the rise of “they” as a singular pronoun, showing how it solves a grammatical conundrum and then comparing it to the transformed usage of “you” in the 17th century. Written and performed by Senior Instructor J.T. Bushnell, it is designed for high school and college students studying grammar, writing, or linguistics. The School of Writing, Literature, and Film at Oregon State University sponsors this series. For further explanations of grammar issues and writing tips, please subscribe to the free SWLF YouTube Channel or visit https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/oregon-state-guide-grammar-terms. In the comments section below, feel free to suggest other terms you would like us to cover. Liking, sharing, and commenting on these videos will help us to build a rich digi...
published: 01 Jun 2022 -
Gender Neutral Pronouns: They're Here, Get Used To Them
There are important corrections to this video. Visit here: https://www.tomscott.com/gender-neutral-pronouns/ or pull down the description to read them. Original description: Grammatical gender is a silly concept. So I'm about to go against my vow of descriptivism, and risk being run over by the Linguistic Mafia's bus, and say this: it's a silly idea. CORRECTIONS March 9th, 2019 Back in 2013, I made a video about ‘singular they’ and gender-neutral pronouns. Looking back on it with half a decade of hindsight, there are several things I want to correct. I also have a few thoughts on how the reactions to it have changed over time, and why the video’s comments will remain off. Firstly, while editing the video, I cut the first sentence of the script. That sentence didn’t seem to add anything...
published: 05 Jul 2013 -
Using They/Them Too Difficult??? Skill Issue.
This video is a great watch (includes adult topics and is very interesting). Annoying gays and theys are not the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuk2DJTLV_Y&t=750s I'm fed up with people trying to make me feel guilty for expecting the bare minimum - using they/them pronouns is not that hard. My partner and friends find it easy to use they/them or correct themselves so are you mean or are you stupid? (Love to all those who actually do use the correct pronouns for trans people x)
published: 18 Oct 2024 -
Singular THEY...!!
#They#singular#Englishfacts#language #learnenglish#esl #verbsinenglishgrammar #amazingfacts #facts#Englishfacts#interestingfacts
published: 26 Mar 2021
8:16
Let's Talk About Singular They.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 8:16
- Uploaded Date: 14 Oct 2022
- views: 891575
A sequel to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQNdkdqoIdw
Thanks to my patrons!!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=73482298
Special thanks to Calvin for p...
A sequel to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQNdkdqoIdw
Thanks to my patrons!!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=73482298
Special thanks to Calvin for pestering me until I made this video.
Sources:
Baron, D. (1981-2015). The Words that Failed: A chronology of early nonbinary pronouns.
Baron, D. (1986). Grammar and Gender. New Haven.
Baron, D. (2018). A brief history of singular ‘they’. Oxford English Dictionary Blogs.
Fisher, A. (1745). A New Grammar [2nd ed. 1750]. Newcastle upon Tyne.
Gerner, J. (1998). Singular and Plural Anaphors of Indefinite Personal Pronouns in Spoken British English. Corpora Galore: Analyses and Techniques in Describing English: Papers from the Nineteenth International Conference on English Language Research on Computerised Corpora.
Graham, S. (2001). Sulawesi's fifth gender. Inside Indonesia.
McWhorter, J. (2013). The Royal They: Fighting against the tyranny of pronouns. The New Republic.
LaScotte, D. (2016). Singular they: An Empirical Study of Generic Pronoun Use. American Speech. 91 (1): 62–80.
Miller, C. & Swift, K. (1980). The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing. New York. Harper & Row.
Safire, W. (1985). On Language; You Not Tarzan, Me Not Jane. The New York Times.
Wagner, S. (2003). Gender in English Pronouns: Myth and Reality. University of Freiburg.
(1881). Detroit Free Press. May 13 edition.
(2018). Collins COBUILD English Dictionary.
(2022). they. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
Constitution of the United States of America. Article 1 §2.
Literary examples of the singular “they”:
Austen, Jane. (1814). Mansfield Park.
Shakespeare, William. (p. 1623). The Comedy of Errors.
Shaw, George Bernard. (1898). Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant.
Anonymous writer. (c.1350). William and the Werewolf. Translated c. 1350-1375 to English from the original French written c. 1200.
NOTES FROM VIDEO:
[Note 1] When I say “is from”, I am arguing purely from a synchronic perspective – I mean it as a shorthand for the fact that the plural mixed gender and plural masculine are the same, and distinct from the plural feminine in French. I am not making an argument from etymology here.
[Note 2] Wagner argues that “the choice of a supposedly masculine personal pronoun (him) said nothing about the gender or sex of the referent” in Middle English. However, I would argue that the association with the masculine over the feminine still applies. Wagner herself writes that this pronoun can be used for any combination of the genders “masculine” and “neuter”, or sexes “male” and “asexual”, deliberately excluding the “feminine” or “female”. Despite being gender-neutral in some contexts, this pronoun was never epicene, not even in Middle English.
[Note 3] Note, of course, that “man” was originally the word for “human”, and only later came to mean “male adult”. In Old English, “man” was “wer”, and “woman” was “wif”.
[Note 4] Joke.
[Note 5] Note the significantly lower percentages found only three years earlier, in Erdmann (1995), with singular “they” only being used in just under 50% of cases. This study was, firstly, done on Americans, who may be more biased against the singular “they”, and was also a study of written language, reflecting how the singular “they” is often seen as too informal by publishers, and therefore either avoided by authors, or changed by the editors.
[Note 6] Actually, in the examples given from Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors and Austen’s Mansfield Park, the gender of the referent is known (masculine in the former case, feminine in the latter), but an epicene pronoun is used regardless. Go figure.
[Note 7] I am aware that people have been identifying as non-binary for a long time, even in Europe and colonial America. The sociology and history of this is worth looking into, but I am personally less interested in it and therefore didn’t want to go into the topic in the video.
[Note 8] When it is a subject, this “sie/Sie” can be separated out into “she/feminine it” with the 3rd person singular verb ending, and “they/you” with the 3rd person plural verb ending. In the dative, the same split accords, as the former take the dative “ihr” and the latter the dative “ihnen/Ihnen”. When in the accusative or genitive, there is no difference in spoken language between the four. However, in writing, the formal “you” is distinguished from the others because it, and all its forms, are capitalised.
Chapters:
0:00 – The Epicene “They”
2:48 – The Generic “He”
5:28 – The Non-Binary “They”
7:21 – Credits
Written and Created by me
Art by kvd102
Music by me
Translations:
Ferr - Indonesian
D'ignoranza & Marco Lisoni - Italian
Leeuwe van den Heuvel - Dutch
Gergő Kulman - Hungarian
Ray Karr - Spanish
Ollie - French
千雨 Chisame - Standard Mandarin, Japanese
Risto Kynkäänniemi - Finnish
Jafar - Arabic
Natália - Portuguese
Álftanes - Cantonese
Maymun - Turkish
Eneko Andonegi - Basque
Kantoros1 - Czech
Mihaela Modic - Slovene
defr - Korean
#theythem #nonbinary #pronouns
https://wn.com/Let's_Talk_About_Singular_They.
A sequel to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQNdkdqoIdw
Thanks to my patrons!!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=73482298
Special thanks to Calvin for pestering me until I made this video.
Sources:
Baron, D. (1981-2015). The Words that Failed: A chronology of early nonbinary pronouns.
Baron, D. (1986). Grammar and Gender. New Haven.
Baron, D. (2018). A brief history of singular ‘they’. Oxford English Dictionary Blogs.
Fisher, A. (1745). A New Grammar [2nd ed. 1750]. Newcastle upon Tyne.
Gerner, J. (1998). Singular and Plural Anaphors of Indefinite Personal Pronouns in Spoken British English. Corpora Galore: Analyses and Techniques in Describing English: Papers from the Nineteenth International Conference on English Language Research on Computerised Corpora.
Graham, S. (2001). Sulawesi's fifth gender. Inside Indonesia.
McWhorter, J. (2013). The Royal They: Fighting against the tyranny of pronouns. The New Republic.
LaScotte, D. (2016). Singular they: An Empirical Study of Generic Pronoun Use. American Speech. 91 (1): 62–80.
Miller, C. & Swift, K. (1980). The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing. New York. Harper & Row.
Safire, W. (1985). On Language; You Not Tarzan, Me Not Jane. The New York Times.
Wagner, S. (2003). Gender in English Pronouns: Myth and Reality. University of Freiburg.
(1881). Detroit Free Press. May 13 edition.
(2018). Collins COBUILD English Dictionary.
(2022). they. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
Constitution of the United States of America. Article 1 §2.
Literary examples of the singular “they”:
Austen, Jane. (1814). Mansfield Park.
Shakespeare, William. (p. 1623). The Comedy of Errors.
Shaw, George Bernard. (1898). Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant.
Anonymous writer. (c.1350). William and the Werewolf. Translated c. 1350-1375 to English from the original French written c. 1200.
NOTES FROM VIDEO:
[Note 1] When I say “is from”, I am arguing purely from a synchronic perspective – I mean it as a shorthand for the fact that the plural mixed gender and plural masculine are the same, and distinct from the plural feminine in French. I am not making an argument from etymology here.
[Note 2] Wagner argues that “the choice of a supposedly masculine personal pronoun (him) said nothing about the gender or sex of the referent” in Middle English. However, I would argue that the association with the masculine over the feminine still applies. Wagner herself writes that this pronoun can be used for any combination of the genders “masculine” and “neuter”, or sexes “male” and “asexual”, deliberately excluding the “feminine” or “female”. Despite being gender-neutral in some contexts, this pronoun was never epicene, not even in Middle English.
[Note 3] Note, of course, that “man” was originally the word for “human”, and only later came to mean “male adult”. In Old English, “man” was “wer”, and “woman” was “wif”.
[Note 4] Joke.
[Note 5] Note the significantly lower percentages found only three years earlier, in Erdmann (1995), with singular “they” only being used in just under 50% of cases. This study was, firstly, done on Americans, who may be more biased against the singular “they”, and was also a study of written language, reflecting how the singular “they” is often seen as too informal by publishers, and therefore either avoided by authors, or changed by the editors.
[Note 6] Actually, in the examples given from Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors and Austen’s Mansfield Park, the gender of the referent is known (masculine in the former case, feminine in the latter), but an epicene pronoun is used regardless. Go figure.
[Note 7] I am aware that people have been identifying as non-binary for a long time, even in Europe and colonial America. The sociology and history of this is worth looking into, but I am personally less interested in it and therefore didn’t want to go into the topic in the video.
[Note 8] When it is a subject, this “sie/Sie” can be separated out into “she/feminine it” with the 3rd person singular verb ending, and “they/you” with the 3rd person plural verb ending. In the dative, the same split accords, as the former take the dative “ihr” and the latter the dative “ihnen/Ihnen”. When in the accusative or genitive, there is no difference in spoken language between the four. However, in writing, the formal “you” is distinguished from the others because it, and all its forms, are capitalised.
Chapters:
0:00 – The Epicene “They”
2:48 – The Generic “He”
5:28 – The Non-Binary “They”
7:21 – Credits
Written and Created by me
Art by kvd102
Music by me
Translations:
Ferr - Indonesian
D'ignoranza & Marco Lisoni - Italian
Leeuwe van den Heuvel - Dutch
Gergő Kulman - Hungarian
Ray Karr - Spanish
Ollie - French
千雨 Chisame - Standard Mandarin, Japanese
Risto Kynkäänniemi - Finnish
Jafar - Arabic
Natália - Portuguese
Álftanes - Cantonese
Maymun - Turkish
Eneko Andonegi - Basque
Kantoros1 - Czech
Mihaela Modic - Slovene
defr - Korean
#theythem #nonbinary #pronouns
9:03
BONUS VIDEO | Singular They | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:03
- Uploaded Date: 05 May 2016
- views: 129178
Courses on Khan Academy are always 100% free. Start practicing—and saving your progress—now: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/parts-of-speech-the...
Courses on Khan Academy are always 100% free. Start practicing—and saving your progress—now: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/parts-of-speech-the-pronoun/indefinite-pronouns-pronoun-vagueness-and-emphatic-pronouns/v/singular-they
You may have been hearing a lot about the "singular they" recently. But what is it? How does it work, what is its history, and is it grammatical? Let's find out.
Watch the next lesson: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/partsofspeech/the-modifier/v/intro-to-adjectives-v1?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=Desc&utm_campaign=grammar
Missed the previous lesson? https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/partsofspeech/the-pronoun/v/emphatic-pronouns-the-parts-of-speech-grammar?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=Desc&utm_campaign=grammar
Grammar on Khan Academy: Grammar is the collection of rules and conventions that make languages go. This section is about Standard American English, but there's something here for everyone.
About Khan Academy: Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. We tackle math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more. Our math missions guide learners from kindergarten to calculus using state-of-the-art, adaptive technology that identifies strengths and learning gaps. We've also partnered with institutions like NASA, The Museum of Modern Art, The California Academy of Sciences, and MIT to offer specialized content.
For free. For everyone. Forever. #YouCanLearnAnything
Subscribe to Khan Academy’s Grammar channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8JT97hQjMVWeO0B-x8eVxQ?sub_confirmation=1
Subscribe to Khan Academy: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=khanacademy"
https://wn.com/Bonus_Video_|_Singular_They_|_The_Parts_Of_Speech_|_Grammar_|_Khan_Academy
Courses on Khan Academy are always 100% free. Start practicing—and saving your progress—now: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/parts-of-speech-the-pronoun/indefinite-pronouns-pronoun-vagueness-and-emphatic-pronouns/v/singular-they
You may have been hearing a lot about the "singular they" recently. But what is it? How does it work, what is its history, and is it grammatical? Let's find out.
Watch the next lesson: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/partsofspeech/the-modifier/v/intro-to-adjectives-v1?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=Desc&utm_campaign=grammar
Missed the previous lesson? https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/partsofspeech/the-pronoun/v/emphatic-pronouns-the-parts-of-speech-grammar?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=Desc&utm_campaign=grammar
Grammar on Khan Academy: Grammar is the collection of rules and conventions that make languages go. This section is about Standard American English, but there's something here for everyone.
About Khan Academy: Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom. We tackle math, science, computer programming, history, art history, economics, and more. Our math missions guide learners from kindergarten to calculus using state-of-the-art, adaptive technology that identifies strengths and learning gaps. We've also partnered with institutions like NASA, The Museum of Modern Art, The California Academy of Sciences, and MIT to offer specialized content.
For free. For everyone. Forever. #YouCanLearnAnything
Subscribe to Khan Academy’s Grammar channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC8JT97hQjMVWeO0B-x8eVxQ?sub_confirmation=1
Subscribe to Khan Academy: https://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=khanacademy"
- published: 05 May 2016
- views: 129178
3:09
The Singular THEY (why we use THEY for just one person)
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:09
- Uploaded Date: 10 Jun 2024
- views: 3902
Is it correct to use THEY for just one person? Want to learn about the SINGULAR THEY? This video explains why we use the pronouns THEY and THEM when only talkin...
Is it correct to use THEY for just one person? Want to learn about the SINGULAR THEY? This video explains why we use the pronouns THEY and THEM when only talking about one person.
I'm Teacher Mike, and I'm an English (ESL/EFL) teacher from the United States.
I'm currently posting 3 videos each week (Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday)(Tuesday is a LIVE video), so if you're interested in improving your English, make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so that you see all of my new videos.
Also, my ebook "How to Practice Speaking English by Yourself and Why Everyone Should Do It" is finally available on Amazon. If you're interested, here is the link https://a.co/d/06M5faZ
And don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Threads (and check out my website)!
https://www.teacher-mike.com
https://www.facebook.com/teachermikeenglish/
https://www.instagram.com/teacher_mike_english
https://wn.com/The_Singular_They_(Why_We_Use_They_For_Just_One_Person)
Is it correct to use THEY for just one person? Want to learn about the SINGULAR THEY? This video explains why we use the pronouns THEY and THEM when only talking about one person.
I'm Teacher Mike, and I'm an English (ESL/EFL) teacher from the United States.
I'm currently posting 3 videos each week (Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday)(Tuesday is a LIVE video), so if you're interested in improving your English, make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so that you see all of my new videos.
Also, my ebook "How to Practice Speaking English by Yourself and Why Everyone Should Do It" is finally available on Amazon. If you're interested, here is the link https://a.co/d/06M5faZ
And don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Threads (and check out my website)!
https://www.teacher-mike.com
https://www.facebook.com/teachermikeenglish/
https://www.instagram.com/teacher_mike_english
- published: 10 Jun 2024
- views: 3902
9:32
Singular "They"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 9:32
- Uploaded Date: 12 Jun 2023
- views: 2346
This video explains when it is appropriate to treat "they," "them," "their," "theirs," and "themselves" as singular. It is covers the new word "themself." This ...
This video explains when it is appropriate to treat "they," "them," "their," "theirs," and "themselves" as singular. It is covers the new word "themself." This video is linked to the following lesson on Grammar Monster:
https://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/his_her_their_they_singular_plural.htm
https://wn.com/Singular_They
This video explains when it is appropriate to treat "they," "them," "their," "theirs," and "themselves" as singular. It is covers the new word "themself." This video is linked to the following lesson on Grammar Monster:
https://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/his_her_their_they_singular_plural.htm
- published: 12 Jun 2023
- views: 2346
1:30
The exciting problem with singular "they"
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 1:30
- Uploaded Date: 17 Oct 2022
- views: 7246
Originally posted: 10/16/2022
What will the “y’all” of “they” be? 😆🤷♀️
Transcription:
Here's the problem with they being a singular pronoun. First off, it is...
Originally posted: 10/16/2022
What will the “y’all” of “they” be? 😆🤷♀️
Transcription:
Here's the problem with they being a singular pronoun. First off, it is singular. It's plural, too, but we're way past it making sense for someone to correct your grammar when you use they to mean an individual person. Is Jezebel joining us? No. They went apple picking. Zero grammar errors there. But here's the problem. It creates a grammatical vacuum in our language, because we no longer have a distinct third person plural pronoun. This isn't bad, but it can be confusing. For example, Jezebel went apple picking with Delilah. She'll be joining us later. We know from that sentence who we're meeting up with. Jezebel, awesome. She's amazing. But wait, I'm sorry. Jezebel's pronouns are they/them. So, let me rephrase. Jezebel went apple picking with Delilah. They'll be joining us later. Now, there's confusion. Who's joining us later? Only Jezebel, if they are singular, but Jebel and Delilah, if they as plural.
This doesn't mean they shouldn't be singular. It's way more interesting than that. It means that we, as English speakers, in our little dialectal enclaves are about to invent new third person plural pronouns. How exciting is that? This isn't farfetched. The exact same thing happens with our second person pronoun. You is both singular and plural, but it feels slightly off to just bluntly say you to a group of people. So, we adapt. We invented plurals, y'all, you guys, and in Pittsburgh, yins. As they become increasingly common as a third person singular, how will our language evolve to mark the third person plural? I have no idea, but it's going to be fun to watch. Anyway, thanks for watching. Come along if you feel like it.
#theythem #pronouns #grammar
https://wn.com/The_Exciting_Problem_With_Singular_They
Originally posted: 10/16/2022
What will the “y’all” of “they” be? 😆🤷♀️
Transcription:
Here's the problem with they being a singular pronoun. First off, it is singular. It's plural, too, but we're way past it making sense for someone to correct your grammar when you use they to mean an individual person. Is Jezebel joining us? No. They went apple picking. Zero grammar errors there. But here's the problem. It creates a grammatical vacuum in our language, because we no longer have a distinct third person plural pronoun. This isn't bad, but it can be confusing. For example, Jezebel went apple picking with Delilah. She'll be joining us later. We know from that sentence who we're meeting up with. Jezebel, awesome. She's amazing. But wait, I'm sorry. Jezebel's pronouns are they/them. So, let me rephrase. Jezebel went apple picking with Delilah. They'll be joining us later. Now, there's confusion. Who's joining us later? Only Jezebel, if they are singular, but Jebel and Delilah, if they as plural.
This doesn't mean they shouldn't be singular. It's way more interesting than that. It means that we, as English speakers, in our little dialectal enclaves are about to invent new third person plural pronouns. How exciting is that? This isn't farfetched. The exact same thing happens with our second person pronoun. You is both singular and plural, but it feels slightly off to just bluntly say you to a group of people. So, we adapt. We invented plurals, y'all, you guys, and in Pittsburgh, yins. As they become increasingly common as a third person singular, how will our language evolve to mark the third person plural? I have no idea, but it's going to be fun to watch. Anyway, thanks for watching. Come along if you feel like it.
#theythem #pronouns #grammar
- published: 17 Oct 2022
- views: 7246
3:28
Singular 'they' / Practice English with Paul
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:28
- Uploaded Date: 22 Jun 2015
- views: 10785
Click here to find my unique posts on the English language: http://vk.com/id290352757.
Singular 'they'
Hello my friends and welcome to Practice English with Pa...
Click here to find my unique posts on the English language: http://vk.com/id290352757.
Singular 'they'
Hello my friends and welcome to Practice English with Paul. Today it’s grammar; it is the singular ‘they’. Now this is a mistake many of my students have made over the years in their essays especially at FCE, even surprisingly sometimes, CAE. You should not be making this kind of mistake at CAE. Now we know the word ‘they’ the pronoun and it is followed by a plural verb. They are…. They like….. They were…. But sometimes we use the pronoun ‘they’ with a singular noun. Now let’s have a look at how this works, so we can avoid making mistakes in the future. They/them/their. We use them after nouns of unidentified people or a job whose role is a man or a woman and there is no way of knowing if that role is for a man or a woman. Now if you look at German or if you know German, German has suffixes belonging to their roles that tell you that job is of man or of a woman. Lehrer – lehrerin. English doesn’t have that. We just have the one word ‘teacher’ and it doesn’t tell you if it’s a man or a woman. Now, if you have a look at this example: ‘A doctor looks after his patients.’ That is wrong because the doctor here could be a woman. Saying ‘his’ could be sexist and is wrong. So, how do we avoid this? We can say: ‘A doctor looks after his or her patients.’ You will see such a structure sometimes in English. It’s correct, it’s fine or we can improve it. We can say ‘A doctor looks after their patients.’ Their – meaning the doctor who is a man or a woman so it’s a singular noun with a plural idea. Man or woman. That’s very important to understand. Other such words like this: teacher, pilot, paramedic et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But not only jobs. Now, unidentified people, we have the pronouns like somebody and anyone. This can also take the singular ‘they’. For example, somebody has forgotten their book. That somebody could be a boy or a girl. If anyone touches you (man or woman), I’ll kill them. Do you understand how it works? This is a fantastic way of reducing your word limit in your essays for your FCEs, CAEs. On top of that it’s a fantastic way of avoiding or upsetting people because you got their gender wrong. Whenever you’re unsure if it’s a man or a woman always use the singular ‘they’. You can’t make a mistake with it. Any questions, please write them below in the comment section and I will be happy to help you. Please subscribe to my channel and please give a thumbs-up. Thank you very much. Have a good day.
https://wn.com/Singular_'they'_Practice_English_With_Paul
Click here to find my unique posts on the English language: http://vk.com/id290352757.
Singular 'they'
Hello my friends and welcome to Practice English with Paul. Today it’s grammar; it is the singular ‘they’. Now this is a mistake many of my students have made over the years in their essays especially at FCE, even surprisingly sometimes, CAE. You should not be making this kind of mistake at CAE. Now we know the word ‘they’ the pronoun and it is followed by a plural verb. They are…. They like….. They were…. But sometimes we use the pronoun ‘they’ with a singular noun. Now let’s have a look at how this works, so we can avoid making mistakes in the future. They/them/their. We use them after nouns of unidentified people or a job whose role is a man or a woman and there is no way of knowing if that role is for a man or a woman. Now if you look at German or if you know German, German has suffixes belonging to their roles that tell you that job is of man or of a woman. Lehrer – lehrerin. English doesn’t have that. We just have the one word ‘teacher’ and it doesn’t tell you if it’s a man or a woman. Now, if you have a look at this example: ‘A doctor looks after his patients.’ That is wrong because the doctor here could be a woman. Saying ‘his’ could be sexist and is wrong. So, how do we avoid this? We can say: ‘A doctor looks after his or her patients.’ You will see such a structure sometimes in English. It’s correct, it’s fine or we can improve it. We can say ‘A doctor looks after their patients.’ Their – meaning the doctor who is a man or a woman so it’s a singular noun with a plural idea. Man or woman. That’s very important to understand. Other such words like this: teacher, pilot, paramedic et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But not only jobs. Now, unidentified people, we have the pronouns like somebody and anyone. This can also take the singular ‘they’. For example, somebody has forgotten their book. That somebody could be a boy or a girl. If anyone touches you (man or woman), I’ll kill them. Do you understand how it works? This is a fantastic way of reducing your word limit in your essays for your FCEs, CAEs. On top of that it’s a fantastic way of avoiding or upsetting people because you got their gender wrong. Whenever you’re unsure if it’s a man or a woman always use the singular ‘they’. You can’t make a mistake with it. Any questions, please write them below in the comment section and I will be happy to help you. Please subscribe to my channel and please give a thumbs-up. Thank you very much. Have a good day.
- published: 22 Jun 2015
- views: 10785
4:19
"What Is Singular They?": Oregon State Guide to Grammar
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 4:19
- Uploaded Date: 01 Jun 2022
- views: 5787
This video describes the rise of “they” as a singular pronoun, showing how it solves a grammatical conundrum and then comparing it to the transformed usage of “...
This video describes the rise of “they” as a singular pronoun, showing how it solves a grammatical conundrum and then comparing it to the transformed usage of “you” in the 17th century. Written and performed by Senior Instructor J.T. Bushnell, it is designed for high school and college students studying grammar, writing, or linguistics.
The School of Writing, Literature, and Film at Oregon State University sponsors this series. For further explanations of grammar issues and writing tips, please subscribe to the free SWLF YouTube Channel or visit https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/oregon-state-guide-grammar-terms. In the comments section below, feel free to suggest other terms you would like us to cover. Liking, sharing, and commenting on these videos will help us to build a rich digital learning environment around grammar and language.
Below are a few more videos in this series. If there are topics you'd like to see us cover in the future, please let us know in the comments!
"What Is Grammar?": https://youtu.be/vZjNznvqgEs
"What Is a Noun?": https://youtu.be/0KxMjVcyS8M
"What Is a Verb?": https://youtu.be/u9zegJ84mYI
"What Is a Subject?": https://youtu.be/Kp65wGtoVF0
"What Is a Predicate?": https://youtu.be/MniZqFm-pe0
“What Is a Phrase?”: https://youtu.be/9TPo4jGtM8A
“What Is a Clause?”: https://youtu.be/_Qxq-S0DQrw
“When to Use Commas”: https://youtu.be/UWlVVlSYcTg
“When NOT to Use Commas”: https://youtu.be/boQahPvFOLo
“What Is the Oxford Comma (And Is It Really Optional)?”: https://youtu.be/yXJIkAOKxzU
"What Is Passive Voice?": https://youtu.be/ppBq_Ulrq3w
"What Is Parallelism?": https://youtu.be/UUaXS3k68kY
"What Is Gender-Neutral Language?": https://youtu.be/lyPtjrEIgEw
“What Are Dialects?”: https://youtu.be/TXtMB1vwVaM
“What Is Code-Meshing?”: https://youtu.be/FwFZ7FRcDJU
“How to Use a Semicolon”: https://youtu.be/ZtyjVCdHFHU
“How to Use a Colon”: https://youtu.be/YkLtn5W9buY
“How to Use Apostrophes”: https://youtu.be/txSzXat3GM0
“What Is a Comma Splice?”: https://youtu.be/OTcvMKXEIus
“What Is Syntax?”: https://youtu.be/DrqILBzGZVE
"What Is Mood in Grammar?": https://youtu.be/s7-5-DtJf5E
"What Is (AND ISN'T) Standard Written English?": https://youtu.be/IVIK6PS8NEg
https://wn.com/What_Is_Singular_They_Oregon_State_Guide_To_Grammar
This video describes the rise of “they” as a singular pronoun, showing how it solves a grammatical conundrum and then comparing it to the transformed usage of “you” in the 17th century. Written and performed by Senior Instructor J.T. Bushnell, it is designed for high school and college students studying grammar, writing, or linguistics.
The School of Writing, Literature, and Film at Oregon State University sponsors this series. For further explanations of grammar issues and writing tips, please subscribe to the free SWLF YouTube Channel or visit https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/oregon-state-guide-grammar-terms. In the comments section below, feel free to suggest other terms you would like us to cover. Liking, sharing, and commenting on these videos will help us to build a rich digital learning environment around grammar and language.
Below are a few more videos in this series. If there are topics you'd like to see us cover in the future, please let us know in the comments!
"What Is Grammar?": https://youtu.be/vZjNznvqgEs
"What Is a Noun?": https://youtu.be/0KxMjVcyS8M
"What Is a Verb?": https://youtu.be/u9zegJ84mYI
"What Is a Subject?": https://youtu.be/Kp65wGtoVF0
"What Is a Predicate?": https://youtu.be/MniZqFm-pe0
“What Is a Phrase?”: https://youtu.be/9TPo4jGtM8A
“What Is a Clause?”: https://youtu.be/_Qxq-S0DQrw
“When to Use Commas”: https://youtu.be/UWlVVlSYcTg
“When NOT to Use Commas”: https://youtu.be/boQahPvFOLo
“What Is the Oxford Comma (And Is It Really Optional)?”: https://youtu.be/yXJIkAOKxzU
"What Is Passive Voice?": https://youtu.be/ppBq_Ulrq3w
"What Is Parallelism?": https://youtu.be/UUaXS3k68kY
"What Is Gender-Neutral Language?": https://youtu.be/lyPtjrEIgEw
“What Are Dialects?”: https://youtu.be/TXtMB1vwVaM
“What Is Code-Meshing?”: https://youtu.be/FwFZ7FRcDJU
“How to Use a Semicolon”: https://youtu.be/ZtyjVCdHFHU
“How to Use a Colon”: https://youtu.be/YkLtn5W9buY
“How to Use Apostrophes”: https://youtu.be/txSzXat3GM0
“What Is a Comma Splice?”: https://youtu.be/OTcvMKXEIus
“What Is Syntax?”: https://youtu.be/DrqILBzGZVE
"What Is Mood in Grammar?": https://youtu.be/s7-5-DtJf5E
"What Is (AND ISN'T) Standard Written English?": https://youtu.be/IVIK6PS8NEg
- published: 01 Jun 2022
- views: 5787
3:49
Gender Neutral Pronouns: They're Here, Get Used To Them
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 3:49
- Uploaded Date: 05 Jul 2013
- views: 4497994
There are important corrections to this video. Visit here: https://www.tomscott.com/gender-neutral-pronouns/ or pull down the description to read them. Original...
There are important corrections to this video. Visit here: https://www.tomscott.com/gender-neutral-pronouns/ or pull down the description to read them. Original description: Grammatical gender is a silly concept. So I'm about to go against my vow of descriptivism, and risk being run over by the Linguistic Mafia's bus, and say this: it's a silly idea.
CORRECTIONS
March 9th, 2019
Back in 2013, I made a video about ‘singular they’ and gender-neutral pronouns. Looking back on it with half a decade of hindsight, there are several things I want to correct. I also have a few thoughts on how the reactions to it have changed over time, and why the video’s comments will remain off.
Firstly, while editing the video, I cut the first sentence of the script. That sentence didn’t seem to add anything, and I’m a believer in ‘don’t bore us, get to the chorus’. That would have been fine — if only the script didn’t refer back to that first sentence later on, noting that the viewer probably didn’t notice the singular they in it.
There used to be an annotation explaining that mistake, but YouTube’s deleted all annotations now. I regret the error.
Secondly, I mentioned that recently-coined gender-neutral prounouns (hir, xe, etc) haven’t caught on in regular usage, and that trying to deliberately add new words into a language is extremely difficult. I think that’s true, but my tone was a bit too dismissive — there was an implied value judgment there. I’d rephrase that in a second video.
And finally, I co-opted a couple of LGBT slogans, both in the title of the video and the video itself. Those aren’t my slogans to rewrite, and adding ‘with apologies to’ in the reference line isn’t a great way of solving that. Looking back, I’m uncomfortable with those.
Changing times
In 2013, the video was uncontroversial. You can see that in this chart of likes and dislikes over time from YouTube’s analytics tool:
[graph available on https://www.tomscott.com/gender-neutral-pronouns/ ]
The video received very few dislikes until 2016. And I remember the comments from back then: those dislikes weren’t from angry conservative types. Instead, those were speakers of languages that used grammatical gender — they were angry that I’d insulted their language!
But you can see the tide start to shift in 2016. This is why I turned off comments: it seems that a small number of people with limited empathy deliberately search out videos about subjects like this just so they can hit ‘dislike’, leave awful comments that are usually one of a few toxic in-jokes, and go. YouTube's moderation tools remain desperately inadequate at dealing with that problem without appointing full-time moderators, and frankly, that would be time and money that could be better spent on almost anything else. For that reason, the comments are going to remain off.
If I were to remake this video in 2019, the most significant change would be focus: the title would be all about singular they, not gender-neutral pronouns. It probably wouldn’t even mention LGBT issues beyond a quick reference. It wouldn’t be a shout of hey, did you know about these folks, because five years later, most people watching the video do. Instead, it’d be a quiet nod of I see you.
What worked for a 2013 audience doesn’t work in 2019.
It seems that, over the last few years, non-binary and trans folks have reached stage three on the Williams Scale: ‘then they fight you’. Hopefully, it won't take long to reach stage four: ‘then you win’.
https://wn.com/Gender_Neutral_Pronouns_They're_Here,_Get_Used_To_Them
There are important corrections to this video. Visit here: https://www.tomscott.com/gender-neutral-pronouns/ or pull down the description to read them. Original description: Grammatical gender is a silly concept. So I'm about to go against my vow of descriptivism, and risk being run over by the Linguistic Mafia's bus, and say this: it's a silly idea.
CORRECTIONS
March 9th, 2019
Back in 2013, I made a video about ‘singular they’ and gender-neutral pronouns. Looking back on it with half a decade of hindsight, there are several things I want to correct. I also have a few thoughts on how the reactions to it have changed over time, and why the video’s comments will remain off.
Firstly, while editing the video, I cut the first sentence of the script. That sentence didn’t seem to add anything, and I’m a believer in ‘don’t bore us, get to the chorus’. That would have been fine — if only the script didn’t refer back to that first sentence later on, noting that the viewer probably didn’t notice the singular they in it.
There used to be an annotation explaining that mistake, but YouTube’s deleted all annotations now. I regret the error.
Secondly, I mentioned that recently-coined gender-neutral prounouns (hir, xe, etc) haven’t caught on in regular usage, and that trying to deliberately add new words into a language is extremely difficult. I think that’s true, but my tone was a bit too dismissive — there was an implied value judgment there. I’d rephrase that in a second video.
And finally, I co-opted a couple of LGBT slogans, both in the title of the video and the video itself. Those aren’t my slogans to rewrite, and adding ‘with apologies to’ in the reference line isn’t a great way of solving that. Looking back, I’m uncomfortable with those.
Changing times
In 2013, the video was uncontroversial. You can see that in this chart of likes and dislikes over time from YouTube’s analytics tool:
[graph available on https://www.tomscott.com/gender-neutral-pronouns/ ]
The video received very few dislikes until 2016. And I remember the comments from back then: those dislikes weren’t from angry conservative types. Instead, those were speakers of languages that used grammatical gender — they were angry that I’d insulted their language!
But you can see the tide start to shift in 2016. This is why I turned off comments: it seems that a small number of people with limited empathy deliberately search out videos about subjects like this just so they can hit ‘dislike’, leave awful comments that are usually one of a few toxic in-jokes, and go. YouTube's moderation tools remain desperately inadequate at dealing with that problem without appointing full-time moderators, and frankly, that would be time and money that could be better spent on almost anything else. For that reason, the comments are going to remain off.
If I were to remake this video in 2019, the most significant change would be focus: the title would be all about singular they, not gender-neutral pronouns. It probably wouldn’t even mention LGBT issues beyond a quick reference. It wouldn’t be a shout of hey, did you know about these folks, because five years later, most people watching the video do. Instead, it’d be a quiet nod of I see you.
What worked for a 2013 audience doesn’t work in 2019.
It seems that, over the last few years, non-binary and trans folks have reached stage three on the Williams Scale: ‘then they fight you’. Hopefully, it won't take long to reach stage four: ‘then you win’.
- published: 05 Jul 2013
- views: 4497994
20:16
Using They/Them Too Difficult??? Skill Issue.
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 20:16
- Uploaded Date: 18 Oct 2024
- views: 525
This video is a great watch (includes adult topics and is very interesting). Annoying gays and theys are not the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuk2DJ...
This video is a great watch (includes adult topics and is very interesting). Annoying gays and theys are not the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuk2DJTLV_Y&t=750s
I'm fed up with people trying to make me feel guilty for expecting the bare minimum - using they/them pronouns is not that hard. My partner and friends find it easy to use they/them or correct themselves so are you mean or are you stupid? (Love to all those who actually do use the correct pronouns for trans people x)
https://wn.com/Using_They_Them_Too_Difficult_Skill_Issue.
This video is a great watch (includes adult topics and is very interesting). Annoying gays and theys are not the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuk2DJTLV_Y&t=750s
I'm fed up with people trying to make me feel guilty for expecting the bare minimum - using they/them pronouns is not that hard. My partner and friends find it easy to use they/them or correct themselves so are you mean or are you stupid? (Love to all those who actually do use the correct pronouns for trans people x)
- published: 18 Oct 2024
- views: 525
0:40
Singular THEY...!!
- Order: Reorder
- Duration: 0:40
- Uploaded Date: 26 Mar 2021
- views: 486
#They#singular#Englishfacts#language
#learnenglish#esl
#verbsinenglishgrammar
#amazingfacts
#facts#Englishfacts#interestingfacts
#They#singular#Englishfacts#language
#learnenglish#esl
#verbsinenglishgrammar
#amazingfacts
#facts#Englishfacts#interestingfacts
https://wn.com/Singular_They...
#They#singular#Englishfacts#language
#learnenglish#esl
#verbsinenglishgrammar
#amazingfacts
#facts#Englishfacts#interestingfacts
- published: 26 Mar 2021
- views: 486
PLAYLIST TIME:
PLAYLIST TIME:
8:16
Let's Talk About Singular They.
A sequel to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQNdkdqoIdw
Thanks to my patrons!!
Patreon: ...
published: 14 Oct 2022
Let's Talk About Singular They.
Let's Talk About Singular They.
- Report rights infringement
- published: 14 Oct 2022
- views: 891575
A sequel to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQNdkdqoIdw
Thanks to my patrons!!
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=73482298
Special thanks to Calvin for pestering me until I made this video.
Sources:
Baron, D. (1981-2015). The Words that Failed: A chronology of early nonbinary pronouns.
Baron, D. (1986). Grammar and Gender. New Haven.
Baron, D. (2018). A brief history of singular ‘they’. Oxford English Dictionary Blogs.
Fisher, A. (1745). A New Grammar [2nd ed. 1750]. Newcastle upon Tyne.
Gerner, J. (1998). Singular and Plural Anaphors of Indefinite Personal Pronouns in Spoken British English. Corpora Galore: Analyses and Techniques in Describing English: Papers from the Nineteenth International Conference on English Language Research on Computerised Corpora.
Graham, S. (2001). Sulawesi's fifth gender. Inside Indonesia.
McWhorter, J. (2013). The Royal They: Fighting against the tyranny of pronouns. The New Republic.
LaScotte, D. (2016). Singular they: An Empirical Study of Generic Pronoun Use. American Speech. 91 (1): 62–80.
Miller, C. & Swift, K. (1980). The Handbook of Nonsexist Writing. New York. Harper & Row.
Safire, W. (1985). On Language; You Not Tarzan, Me Not Jane. The New York Times.
Wagner, S. (2003). Gender in English Pronouns: Myth and Reality. University of Freiburg.
(1881). Detroit Free Press. May 13 edition.
(2018). Collins COBUILD English Dictionary.
(2022). they. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
Constitution of the United States of America. Article 1 §2.
Literary examples of the singular “they”:
Austen, Jane. (1814). Mansfield Park.
Shakespeare, William. (p. 1623). The Comedy of Errors.
Shaw, George Bernard. (1898). Plays Pleasant and Unpleasant.
Anonymous writer. (c.1350). William and the Werewolf. Translated c. 1350-1375 to English from the original French written c. 1200.
NOTES FROM VIDEO:
[Note 1] When I say “is from”, I am arguing purely from a synchronic perspective – I mean it as a shorthand for the fact that the plural mixed gender and plural masculine are the same, and distinct from the plural feminine in French. I am not making an argument from etymology here.
[Note 2] Wagner argues that “the choice of a supposedly masculine personal pronoun (him) said nothing about the gender or sex of the referent” in Middle English. However, I would argue that the association with the masculine over the feminine still applies. Wagner herself writes that this pronoun can be used for any combination of the genders “masculine” and “neuter”, or sexes “male” and “asexual”, deliberately excluding the “feminine” or “female”. Despite being gender-neutral in some contexts, this pronoun was never epicene, not even in Middle English.
[Note 3] Note, of course, that “man” was originally the word for “human”, and only later came to mean “male adult”. In Old English, “man” was “wer”, and “woman” was “wif”.
[Note 4] Joke.
[Note 5] Note the significantly lower percentages found only three years earlier, in Erdmann (1995), with singular “they” only being used in just under 50% of cases. This study was, firstly, done on Americans, who may be more biased against the singular “they”, and was also a study of written language, reflecting how the singular “they” is often seen as too informal by publishers, and therefore either avoided by authors, or changed by the editors.
[Note 6] Actually, in the examples given from Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors and Austen’s Mansfield Park, the gender of the referent is known (masculine in the former case, feminine in the latter), but an epicene pronoun is used regardless. Go figure.
[Note 7] I am aware that people have been identifying as non-binary for a long time, even in Europe and colonial America. The sociology and history of this is worth looking into, but I am personally less interested in it and therefore didn’t want to go into the topic in the video.
[Note 8] When it is a subject, this “sie/Sie” can be separated out into “she/feminine it” with the 3rd person singular verb ending, and “they/you” with the 3rd person plural verb ending. In the dative, the same split accords, as the former take the dative “ihr” and the latter the dative “ihnen/Ihnen”. When in the accusative or genitive, there is no difference in spoken language between the four. However, in writing, the formal “you” is distinguished from the others because it, and all its forms, are capitalised.
Chapters:
0:00 – The Epicene “They”
2:48 – The Generic “He”
5:28 – The Non-Binary “They”
7:21 – Credits
Written and Created by me
Art by kvd102
Music by me
Translations:
Ferr - Indonesian
D'ignoranza & Marco Lisoni - Italian
Leeuwe van den Heuvel - Dutch
Gergő Kulman - Hungarian
Ray Karr - Spanish
Ollie - French
千雨 Chisame - Standard Mandarin, Japanese
Risto Kynkäänniemi - Finnish
Jafar - Arabic
Natália - Portuguese
Álftanes - Cantonese
Maymun - Turkish
Eneko Andonegi - Basque
Kantoros1 - Czech
Mihaela Modic - Slovene
defr - Korean
#theythem #nonbinary #pronouns
9:03
BONUS VIDEO | Singular They | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy
Courses on Khan Academy are always 100% free. Start practicing—and saving your progress—no...
published: 05 May 2016
BONUS VIDEO | Singular They | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy
BONUS VIDEO | Singular They | The parts of speech | Grammar | Khan Academy
- Report rights infringement
- published: 05 May 2016
- views: 129178
Courses on Khan Academy are always 100% free. Start practicing—and saving your progress—now: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/parts-of-speech-the-pronoun/indefinite-pronouns-pronoun-vagueness-and-emphatic-pronouns/v/singular-they
You may have been hearing a lot about the "singular they" recently. But what is it? How does it work, what is its history, and is it grammatical? Let's find out.
Watch the next lesson: https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/partsofspeech/the-modifier/v/intro-to-adjectives-v1?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=Desc&utm_campaign=grammar
Missed the previous lesson? https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/grammar/partsofspeech/the-pronoun/v/emphatic-pronouns-the-parts-of-speech-grammar?utm_source=YT&utm_medium=Desc&utm_campaign=grammar
Grammar on Khan Academy: Grammar is the collection of rules and conventions that make languages go. This section is about Standard American English, but there's something here for everyone.
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3:09
The Singular THEY (why we use THEY for just one person)
Is it correct to use THEY for just one person? Want to learn about the SINGULAR THEY? This...
published: 10 Jun 2024
The Singular THEY (why we use THEY for just one person)
The Singular THEY (why we use THEY for just one person)
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- published: 10 Jun 2024
- views: 3902
Is it correct to use THEY for just one person? Want to learn about the SINGULAR THEY? This video explains why we use the pronouns THEY and THEM when only talking about one person.
I'm Teacher Mike, and I'm an English (ESL/EFL) teacher from the United States.
I'm currently posting 3 videos each week (Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday)(Tuesday is a LIVE video), so if you're interested in improving your English, make sure to subscribe and turn on notifications so that you see all of my new videos.
Also, my ebook "How to Practice Speaking English by Yourself and Why Everyone Should Do It" is finally available on Amazon. If you're interested, here is the link https://a.co/d/06M5faZ
And don't forget to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, Tiktok, and Threads (and check out my website)!
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9:32
Singular "They"
This video explains when it is appropriate to treat "they," "them," "their," "theirs," and...
published: 12 Jun 2023
Singular "They"
Singular "They"
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- published: 12 Jun 2023
- views: 2346
This video explains when it is appropriate to treat "they," "them," "their," "theirs," and "themselves" as singular. It is covers the new word "themself." This video is linked to the following lesson on Grammar Monster:
https://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/his_her_their_they_singular_plural.htm
1:30
The exciting problem with singular "they"
Originally posted: 10/16/2022
What will the “y’all” of “they” be? 😆🤷♀️
Transcription:
H...
published: 17 Oct 2022
The exciting problem with singular "they"
The exciting problem with singular "they"
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- published: 17 Oct 2022
- views: 7246
Originally posted: 10/16/2022
What will the “y’all” of “they” be? 😆🤷♀️
Transcription:
Here's the problem with they being a singular pronoun. First off, it is singular. It's plural, too, but we're way past it making sense for someone to correct your grammar when you use they to mean an individual person. Is Jezebel joining us? No. They went apple picking. Zero grammar errors there. But here's the problem. It creates a grammatical vacuum in our language, because we no longer have a distinct third person plural pronoun. This isn't bad, but it can be confusing. For example, Jezebel went apple picking with Delilah. She'll be joining us later. We know from that sentence who we're meeting up with. Jezebel, awesome. She's amazing. But wait, I'm sorry. Jezebel's pronouns are they/them. So, let me rephrase. Jezebel went apple picking with Delilah. They'll be joining us later. Now, there's confusion. Who's joining us later? Only Jezebel, if they are singular, but Jebel and Delilah, if they as plural.
This doesn't mean they shouldn't be singular. It's way more interesting than that. It means that we, as English speakers, in our little dialectal enclaves are about to invent new third person plural pronouns. How exciting is that? This isn't farfetched. The exact same thing happens with our second person pronoun. You is both singular and plural, but it feels slightly off to just bluntly say you to a group of people. So, we adapt. We invented plurals, y'all, you guys, and in Pittsburgh, yins. As they become increasingly common as a third person singular, how will our language evolve to mark the third person plural? I have no idea, but it's going to be fun to watch. Anyway, thanks for watching. Come along if you feel like it.
#theythem #pronouns #grammar
3:28
Singular 'they' / Practice English with Paul
Click here to find my unique posts on the English language: http://vk.com/id290352757.
Si...
published: 22 Jun 2015
Singular 'they' / Practice English with Paul
Singular 'they' / Practice English with Paul
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- published: 22 Jun 2015
- views: 10785
Click here to find my unique posts on the English language: http://vk.com/id290352757.
Singular 'they'
Hello my friends and welcome to Practice English with Paul. Today it’s grammar; it is the singular ‘they’. Now this is a mistake many of my students have made over the years in their essays especially at FCE, even surprisingly sometimes, CAE. You should not be making this kind of mistake at CAE. Now we know the word ‘they’ the pronoun and it is followed by a plural verb. They are…. They like….. They were…. But sometimes we use the pronoun ‘they’ with a singular noun. Now let’s have a look at how this works, so we can avoid making mistakes in the future. They/them/their. We use them after nouns of unidentified people or a job whose role is a man or a woman and there is no way of knowing if that role is for a man or a woman. Now if you look at German or if you know German, German has suffixes belonging to their roles that tell you that job is of man or of a woman. Lehrer – lehrerin. English doesn’t have that. We just have the one word ‘teacher’ and it doesn’t tell you if it’s a man or a woman. Now, if you have a look at this example: ‘A doctor looks after his patients.’ That is wrong because the doctor here could be a woman. Saying ‘his’ could be sexist and is wrong. So, how do we avoid this? We can say: ‘A doctor looks after his or her patients.’ You will see such a structure sometimes in English. It’s correct, it’s fine or we can improve it. We can say ‘A doctor looks after their patients.’ Their – meaning the doctor who is a man or a woman so it’s a singular noun with a plural idea. Man or woman. That’s very important to understand. Other such words like this: teacher, pilot, paramedic et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But not only jobs. Now, unidentified people, we have the pronouns like somebody and anyone. This can also take the singular ‘they’. For example, somebody has forgotten their book. That somebody could be a boy or a girl. If anyone touches you (man or woman), I’ll kill them. Do you understand how it works? This is a fantastic way of reducing your word limit in your essays for your FCEs, CAEs. On top of that it’s a fantastic way of avoiding or upsetting people because you got their gender wrong. Whenever you’re unsure if it’s a man or a woman always use the singular ‘they’. You can’t make a mistake with it. Any questions, please write them below in the comment section and I will be happy to help you. Please subscribe to my channel and please give a thumbs-up. Thank you very much. Have a good day.
4:19
"What Is Singular They?": Oregon State Guide to Grammar
This video describes the rise of “they” as a singular pronoun, showing how it solves a gra...
published: 01 Jun 2022
"What Is Singular They?": Oregon State Guide to Grammar
"What Is Singular They?": Oregon State Guide to Grammar
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- published: 01 Jun 2022
- views: 5787
This video describes the rise of “they” as a singular pronoun, showing how it solves a grammatical conundrum and then comparing it to the transformed usage of “you” in the 17th century. Written and performed by Senior Instructor J.T. Bushnell, it is designed for high school and college students studying grammar, writing, or linguistics.
The School of Writing, Literature, and Film at Oregon State University sponsors this series. For further explanations of grammar issues and writing tips, please subscribe to the free SWLF YouTube Channel or visit https://liberalarts.oregonstate.edu/wlf/oregon-state-guide-grammar-terms. In the comments section below, feel free to suggest other terms you would like us to cover. Liking, sharing, and commenting on these videos will help us to build a rich digital learning environment around grammar and language.
Below are a few more videos in this series. If there are topics you'd like to see us cover in the future, please let us know in the comments!
"What Is Grammar?": https://youtu.be/vZjNznvqgEs
"What Is a Noun?": https://youtu.be/0KxMjVcyS8M
"What Is a Verb?": https://youtu.be/u9zegJ84mYI
"What Is a Subject?": https://youtu.be/Kp65wGtoVF0
"What Is a Predicate?": https://youtu.be/MniZqFm-pe0
“What Is a Phrase?”: https://youtu.be/9TPo4jGtM8A
“What Is a Clause?”: https://youtu.be/_Qxq-S0DQrw
“When to Use Commas”: https://youtu.be/UWlVVlSYcTg
“When NOT to Use Commas”: https://youtu.be/boQahPvFOLo
“What Is the Oxford Comma (And Is It Really Optional)?”: https://youtu.be/yXJIkAOKxzU
"What Is Passive Voice?": https://youtu.be/ppBq_Ulrq3w
"What Is Parallelism?": https://youtu.be/UUaXS3k68kY
"What Is Gender-Neutral Language?": https://youtu.be/lyPtjrEIgEw
“What Are Dialects?”: https://youtu.be/TXtMB1vwVaM
“What Is Code-Meshing?”: https://youtu.be/FwFZ7FRcDJU
“How to Use a Semicolon”: https://youtu.be/ZtyjVCdHFHU
“How to Use a Colon”: https://youtu.be/YkLtn5W9buY
“How to Use Apostrophes”: https://youtu.be/txSzXat3GM0
“What Is a Comma Splice?”: https://youtu.be/OTcvMKXEIus
“What Is Syntax?”: https://youtu.be/DrqILBzGZVE
"What Is Mood in Grammar?": https://youtu.be/s7-5-DtJf5E
"What Is (AND ISN'T) Standard Written English?": https://youtu.be/IVIK6PS8NEg
3:49
Gender Neutral Pronouns: They're Here, Get Used To Them
There are important corrections to this video. Visit here: https://www.tomscott.com/gender...
published: 05 Jul 2013
Gender Neutral Pronouns: They're Here, Get Used To Them
Gender Neutral Pronouns: They're Here, Get Used To Them
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- published: 05 Jul 2013
- views: 4497994
There are important corrections to this video. Visit here: https://www.tomscott.com/gender-neutral-pronouns/ or pull down the description to read them. Original description: Grammatical gender is a silly concept. So I'm about to go against my vow of descriptivism, and risk being run over by the Linguistic Mafia's bus, and say this: it's a silly idea.
CORRECTIONS
March 9th, 2019
Back in 2013, I made a video about ‘singular they’ and gender-neutral pronouns. Looking back on it with half a decade of hindsight, there are several things I want to correct. I also have a few thoughts on how the reactions to it have changed over time, and why the video’s comments will remain off.
Firstly, while editing the video, I cut the first sentence of the script. That sentence didn’t seem to add anything, and I’m a believer in ‘don’t bore us, get to the chorus’. That would have been fine — if only the script didn’t refer back to that first sentence later on, noting that the viewer probably didn’t notice the singular they in it.
There used to be an annotation explaining that mistake, but YouTube’s deleted all annotations now. I regret the error.
Secondly, I mentioned that recently-coined gender-neutral prounouns (hir, xe, etc) haven’t caught on in regular usage, and that trying to deliberately add new words into a language is extremely difficult. I think that’s true, but my tone was a bit too dismissive — there was an implied value judgment there. I’d rephrase that in a second video.
And finally, I co-opted a couple of LGBT slogans, both in the title of the video and the video itself. Those aren’t my slogans to rewrite, and adding ‘with apologies to’ in the reference line isn’t a great way of solving that. Looking back, I’m uncomfortable with those.
Changing times
In 2013, the video was uncontroversial. You can see that in this chart of likes and dislikes over time from YouTube’s analytics tool:
[graph available on https://www.tomscott.com/gender-neutral-pronouns/ ]
The video received very few dislikes until 2016. And I remember the comments from back then: those dislikes weren’t from angry conservative types. Instead, those were speakers of languages that used grammatical gender — they were angry that I’d insulted their language!
But you can see the tide start to shift in 2016. This is why I turned off comments: it seems that a small number of people with limited empathy deliberately search out videos about subjects like this just so they can hit ‘dislike’, leave awful comments that are usually one of a few toxic in-jokes, and go. YouTube's moderation tools remain desperately inadequate at dealing with that problem without appointing full-time moderators, and frankly, that would be time and money that could be better spent on almost anything else. For that reason, the comments are going to remain off.
If I were to remake this video in 2019, the most significant change would be focus: the title would be all about singular they, not gender-neutral pronouns. It probably wouldn’t even mention LGBT issues beyond a quick reference. It wouldn’t be a shout of hey, did you know about these folks, because five years later, most people watching the video do. Instead, it’d be a quiet nod of I see you.
What worked for a 2013 audience doesn’t work in 2019.
It seems that, over the last few years, non-binary and trans folks have reached stage three on the Williams Scale: ‘then they fight you’. Hopefully, it won't take long to reach stage four: ‘then you win’.
20:16
Using They/Them Too Difficult??? Skill Issue.
This video is a great watch (includes adult topics and is very interesting). Annoying gays...
published: 18 Oct 2024
Using They/Them Too Difficult??? Skill Issue.
Using They/Them Too Difficult??? Skill Issue.
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- published: 18 Oct 2024
- views: 525
This video is a great watch (includes adult topics and is very interesting). Annoying gays and theys are not the problem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nuk2DJTLV_Y&t=750s
I'm fed up with people trying to make me feel guilty for expecting the bare minimum - using they/them pronouns is not that hard. My partner and friends find it easy to use they/them or correct themselves so are you mean or are you stupid? (Love to all those who actually do use the correct pronouns for trans people x)
0:40
Singular THEY...!!
#They#singular#Englishfacts#language
#learnenglish#esl
#verbsinenglishgrammar
#amazingfact...
published: 26 Mar 2021
Singular THEY...!!
Singular THEY...!!
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- published: 26 Mar 2021
- views: 486
#They#singular#Englishfacts#language
#learnenglish#esl
#verbsinenglishgrammar
#amazingfacts
#facts#Englishfacts#interestingfacts
Singular they
Singular they is the use in English of the pronoun they, or its inflected or derivative forms, such as them, their, themself, or themselves, as a gender-neutral pronoun to refer to a single person or an antecedent that is grammatically singular. It typically occurs with an antecedent of indeterminate gender, as in sentences such as:
The singular they had emerged by the mid-14th century and is common in everyday spoken English, but its use has been the target of criticism since the late nineteenth century. Its use in formal English has increased with the trend toward gender-inclusive language.
Inflected forms and derivative pronouns
Singular they has the same inflected forms as the "normal", plural they, i.e. them and their. They are usually both used with the same verb forms, i.e. "when I tell someone a joke they laughs" would be non-standard.
This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Singular_they
Let's Talk About Singular They....
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Singular "They"...
The exciting problem with singular "they"...
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Gender Neutral Pronouns: They're Here, Get Used To...
Using They/Them Too Difficult??? Skill Issue....