From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This article is about the English personal pronoun. For other uses, see They (disambiguation).
«Theirs» redirects here. Not to be confused with Thiers.
In Modern English, they is a third-person pronoun relating to a grammatical subject.
Morphology[edit]
In Standard Modern English, they has five distinct word forms:[1]
- they: the nominative (subjective) form
- them: the accusative (objective, called the ‘oblique’.[2]: 146 ) and a non-standard determinative form.
- their: the dependent genitive (possessive) form
- theirs: independent genitive form
- themselves: prototypical reflexive form
- themself: derivative reflexive form (nonstandard; now chiefly used instead of «himself or herself» as a reflexive epicenity for they in pronominal reference to a singular referent)[3]
History[edit]
Old English had a single third-person pronoun hē, which had both singular and plural forms, and they wasn’t among them. In or about the start of the 13th century, they was imported from a Scandinavian source (Old Norse þeir, Old Danish, Old Swedish þer, þair), where it was a masculine plural demonstrative pronoun. It comes from Proto-Germanic *thai, nominative plural pronoun, from PIE *to-, demonstrative pronoun.[4]
By Chaucer’s time the th— form has been adopted in London for the subject case only, whereas the oblique cases remain in their native form (hem, here < OE heom, heora). At the same period (and indeed before), Scots texts, such as Barbour’s Bruce, have the th— form in all cases.[5]: 176
The development in Middle English is shown in the following table. At the final stage, it had reached its modern form.
| I | II | III | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Nominative | þei | þei | þei |
| Oblique | hem | hem | hem ~ þem |
| Genitive | her(e) | her(e) ~ þeir | þeir |
Singular they[edit]
Singular they is a use of they as an epicene (gender-neutral) pronoun for a singular referent.[6][7] In this usage, they follows plural agreement rules (they are, not *they is), but the semantic reference is singular. Unlike plural they, singular they is only used for people. For this reason, it could be considered to have personal gender. Some people refuse to use the epicene pronoun they when referring to individuals on the basis that it is primarily a plural pronoun instead of a singular pronoun.[8][9][10]
Word of the year[edit]
In December 2019, Merriam-Webster chose singular they as word of the year. The word was chosen because «English famously lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond neatly with singular pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a consequence they has been used for this purpose for over 600 years.»[11]
Syntax[edit]
Functions[edit]
They can appear as a subject, object, determiner or predicative complement.[1] The reflexive form also appears as an adjunct.
- Subject: They‘re there; them being there; their being there; they allowed for themselves to be there.
- Object: I saw them; I directed her to them; They connect to themselves.
- Predicative complement: In our attempt to fight evil, we have become them; They eventually felt they had become themselves.
- Dependent determiner: I touched their top; them folks are helpful (non-standard)
- Independent determiner: This is theirs.
- Adjunct: They did it themselves.
Dependents[edit]
Pronouns rarely take dependents, but it is possible for they to have many of the same kind of dependents as other noun phrases.
- Relative clause modifier: they who arrive late
- Determiner: Sometimes, when you think, «I will show them,» the them you end up showing is yourself.
- Adjective phrase modifier: the real them
- Adverb phrase external modifier: Not even them
Semantics[edit]
Plural they‘s referents can be anything, including persons, as long as it doesn’t include the speaker (which would require we) or the addressee(s) (which would require you). Singular they can only refer to individual persons. Until the end of the 20th century, this was limited to those whose gender is unknown (e.g., Someone’s here. I wonder what they want; That person over there seems to be waving their hands at us.).[12]
Generic[edit]
The pronoun they can also be used to refer to an unspecified group of people, as in In Japan they drive on the left. or They‘re putting in a McDonald’s across the street from the Target. It often refers to the authorities, or to some perceived powerful group, sometimes sinister: They don’t want the public to know the whole truth.
Pronunciation[edit]
According to the OED, the following pronunciations are used:
| Form | Full | Reduced | Recording |
|---|---|---|---|
| they | /ˈðeɪ/ |
female speaker with US accent |
|
| them | (UK) /ˈðɛm/
(US) /ˈðɛm/ |
(UK) /ð(ə)m/
(US) /ðəm/ |
female speaker with US accent |
| their | (UK) /ˈðɛː/
(US) /ˈðɛr/ |
(UK) /ðə/
(US) /ðər/ |
female speaker with US accent |
| theirs | (UK) /ˈðɛːz/
(US) /ˈðɛrz/ |
female speaker with US accent |
|
| themselves | /ðɛmˈsɛlvz/ | (UK) /ð(ə)mˈsɛlvz/
(US) /ðəmˈsɛlvz/ |
female speaker with US accent |
| themself | /ðɛmˈsɛlf/ | (UK) /ð(ə)mˈsɛlf/
(US) /ðəmˈsɛlf/ |
In popular culture[edit]
- Them is a Northern Irish band.
See also[edit]
- English personal pronouns
- Genderqueer
- Generic antecedents
- Object pronoun
- Possessive pronoun
- Spivak pronoun
- Subject pronoun
References[edit]
- ^ a b Huddleston, Rodney; Pullum, Geoffrey K. (2002). The Cambridge grammar of the English language. Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Lass, Roger, ed. (1999). The Cambridge history of the English Language: Volume III 1476–1776. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ “Themself.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/themself. Accessed 25 Jan. 2022.
- ^ «they | Origin and meaning of they by Online Etymology Dictionary». www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2021-03-20.
- ^ a b Blake, Norman, ed. (1992). The Cambridge history of the English Language: Volume II 1066–1476. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Bjorkman, B., (2017) “Singular they and the syntactic representation of gender in English”, Glossa: a journal of general linguistics 2(1), p.80. doi: https://doi.org/10.5334/gjgl.374
- ^ «‘He or she’ versus ‘they’«. Oxford University Press. Archived from the original on December 15, 2011. Retrieved 2012-07-07.
- ^ «Actually, We Should Not All Use They/Them Pronouns».
- ^ «Toronto professor Jordan Peterson takes on gender-neutral pronouns». BBC News. 4 November 2016.
- ^ «A professor’s refusal to use gender-neutral pronouns, and the vicious campus war that followed». 25 January 2017.
- ^ Locker, Melissa (2019-12-10). «Merriam Webster Names ‘They’ As Its Word of the Year for 2019». Time. Retrieved 2019-12-10.
- ^ Lagunoff, Rachel (1997). Singular They (Doctoral dissertation). UCLA.
- Abkhaz: дара (dara)
- Adyghe: ахэр (aaxer)
- Afar: usun
- Afrikaans: hulle (af) pl
- Akan: wɔn (animate), ɛno (inanimate)
- Albanian: ata (sq) m pl, ato (sq) f pl
- Alviri-Vidari: اووا (uvā)
- Amharic: እነሱ (ʾənäsu)
- Arabic: (dual) هُمَا (humā), هُم (ar) pl (hum), هُنَّ (ar) f pl (hunna), (non-human) هِيَ (ar) (hiya)
- Egyptian Arabic: هما (humma), هم m pl (humm)
- Levantine Arabic: هن pl (hinne), هم pl (humme)
- Gulf Arabic: اهم (uhum, uhmə)
- Tunisian Arabic: هُمَا m pl or f pl (humā)
- Aragonese: els, ellos (masculine), ellas (feminine)
- Armenian: նրանք (hy) (nrankʿ)
- Old Armenian: նոքա (nokʿa)
- Aromanian: nãsh m pl, nãse f pl, nãsi f pl, elj m pl, eali f pl, eli f pl
- Assamese: সিহঁত (xihõt) (distal), ইহঁত (ihõt) (proximal), তেওঁলোক (teü̃lük) (distal, polite), এওঁলোক (eü̃lük) (proximal, polite)
- Asturian: ellos (ast) m pl, elles (ast) f pl
- Aymara: jupanaka
- Azerbaijani: onlar (az)
- Bambara: u
- Bashkir: улар (ular)
- Basque: haiek
- Belarusian: яны́ (be) (janý)
- Bengali: তারা (bn) (tara)
- Breton: i (br), int (br)
- Bulgarian: те (bg) (te)
- Burmese: သူတို့ (sutui.), သူများ (my) (su-mya:)
- Buryat: тэдэ (tede)
- Catalan: ells (ca) m pl, elles (ca) f pl
- Chechen: уьш (üš), уьзуш (üzuš)
- Chichewa: iwo
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: (vernacular) 佢哋 (keoi5 dei6), (literary) 他們／他们 (taa1 mun4)
- Dungan: таму (tamu), ана (ana)
- Gan: 佢們／佢们 (qie2 miin), 渠們／渠们 (qie2 miin)
- Jin: 他們／他们 (ta1 me)
- Mandarin: 他們／他们 (zh) (tāmen), (females only) 她們／她们 (zh) (tāmen), (non-human) 它們／它们 (zh) (tāmen)
- Min Dong: 伊各儂／伊各侬 (ĭ-gáuk-nè̤ng)
- Min Nan: 𪜶 (zh-min-nan) (in)
- Teochew: 𪜶 (zh-min-nan) (ing1), 伊儂／伊侬 (i1 nang5)
- Wu: 伊拉 (hhi la, hhi laq) (Shanghai)
- Xiang: 他們／他们 (ta1 men)
- Chuvash: вӗсем (vĕs̬em)
- Cornish: i, jei, anjei
- Czech: oni (cs), ony (cs)
- Dalmatian: jali m pl, jale f pl
- Danish: de (da)
- Dhivehi: އެ މީހުން (e mīhun̊)
- Dutch: zij (nl), ze (nl)
- Dyirbal: not used in Dyirbal (Dyirbal has no third-person pronoun)
- Dzongkha: ཁོང (khong)
- Egyptian: (suffix pronoun) (.sn), (Late Egyptian suffix pronoun)
(.w), (enclitic pronoun) (sn), (stressed pronoun) (ntsn)
- Erzya: сынь (siń)
- Esperanto: ili (eo), tiuj (eo)
- Estonian: nemad (et) pl, nad (et) pl
- Ewe: wo
- Faroese: teir (fo) m tær (fo) f, tey (fo) n
- Fijian: (dual) (please verify) rau (fj), (paucal) (please verify) iratou, (pl) (please verify) ira
- Finnish: (of people) he (fi), (of inanimate things and animals) ne (fi), (informally of people) ne (fi), hyö (fi) (dialectal)
- French: ils (fr) m, elles (fr) f, (tonic) eux (fr) m pl, (neologism) iels (fr) n pl
- Old French: (male only or mixed) il, (female only) eles
- Louisiana French: eux (fr), eusse (fr), eux-autres (fr)
- Friulian: lôr
- Galician: eles (gl) m, elas f
- Georgian: ისინი (isini)
- German: sie (de)
- Greek: αυτοί (el) m (aftoí), αυτές (el) f (aftés), αυτά (el) n (aftá)
- Ancient Greek: οὗτοι m (hoûtoi), αὗται f (haûtai) ταῦτα (taûta); σφεῖς (spheîs)
- Guaraní: ha’ekuéra
- Gujarati: એવણ (evaṇ)
- Hausa: (independent form) súu
- Hawaiian: lāua du, lākou pl
- Hebrew: הֵם (he) m (hem), הֵן (he) f (hen)
- Higaonon: sidan
- Hindi: वे (hi) (ve), ये (hi) (ye)
- Hiri Motu: idia
- Hopi: puma
- Hungarian: ők (hu), (usually indicated by the suffix only) -nak, -nek
- Icelandic: þeir (is) m pl, þær (is) m or f, þau (is) n pl
- Ido: li (io), ili (io) m, eli (io) f, (things) oli (io)
- Indonesian: mereka (id)
- Ingrian: höö
- Ingush: уж (už)
- Interlingua: illes (ia) m, illas (ia) f, illos (ia) n
- Irish: siad (conjunctive), iad (disjunctive), siadsan, iadsan (emphatic)
- Old Irish: é
- Istriot: luri
- Italian: essi (it), loro (it)
- Japanese: 彼ら (ja) (かれら, karera), あいつら (aitsura), (non-human) それら (ja) (sorera), (polite) あの人達 (あのひとたち, anohito-tachi), (more polite) あの方々 (あのかたがた, anokata-gata), 彼女ら (ja) (かのじょら, kanojora) (females only)
- Kabuverdianu: es
- Kaingang: ag
- Kalmyk: тедн (tedn)
- Kannada: ಇವರು m or f (ivaru), ಇವುಗಳು n (ivugaḷu), ಇವು (kn) n (ivu), ಅವರು (kn) m or f (avaru), ಅವುಗಳು n (avugaḷu), ಅವು (kn) n (avu)
- Karakalpak: olar
- Karakhanid: اُلارْ (olar)
- Kashubian: òni
- Kazakh: олар (kk) (olar)
- Khakas: олар (olar)
- Khmer: គាត់ (km) (koat), ពួកគេ (puək kee), គេ (km) (kei), ពួកគាត់ (puək kŏət)
- Korean: 그들 (geudeul), 그녀들 (geunyeodeul) (females only)
- Kyrgyz: алар (ky) (alar)
- Lakota: epi, iyepi
- Laboya: rattu
- Lao: ພວກເຂົາ (phūak khao)
- Latgalian: jī m, juos f, šī m, šuos f
- Latin: ei (la)/ii (la), hi (la), illi
- Latvian: viņi (lv) m, viņas (lv) f
- Lithuanian: jie (lt) m pl, jos (lt) f pl
- Livonian: nämād, ne
- Louisiana Creole French: yé
- Low German: sei (nds), se (nds)
- Lü: please add this translation if you can
- Macedonian: ти́е (tíe)
- Malay: mereka (ms)
- Maltese: huma (mt)
- Manchu: ᠴᡝ (ce)
- Manx: ad (gv), adsyn (emphatic)
- Maori: rāua du, rātou pl
- Mazanderani: وشون (vešun)
- Mon: ညး တံ (ɲɛ̀h tɔʔ), ဍေံ တံ (ɗɛ̀h tɔʔ)
- Mongolian: тэд нар (ted nar)
- Mori Bawah: ira
- Motu: idia
- Mòcheno: sei
- Neapolitan: loro
- Ngarrindjeri: kar
- North Frisian: (Heilgolandic) djo, (Mooring) ja
- Northern Sami: (please verify) soai dual, (please verify) sii pl
- Norwegian: de (no)
- Nynorsk: dei (nn)
- Occitan: eles (oc), elas
- Ojibwe: wiinawaa
- Old Church Slavonic:
- Cyrillic: они (oni)
- Old East Slavic: они (oni), онѣ (oně) (females or non-animate)
- Old English: hīe pl
- Old Norse: þeir, þær, þau
- Oromo: isaan
- Ottoman Turkish: اولار (olar)
- Pashto: هغوی (hoǧúy) (absent or distant), دوی (ps) (dūy) (visible or present)
- Persian: ایشان (fa) (išân), آنها (fa) (ânhâ), آنان (fa) (ânân)
- Pipil: yejemet, yehemet
- Pitjantjatjara: (here) ngaa, (there) pala, (over there) nyara, (not visible) palunya
- Polish: oni (pl) m (animate), one (pl) m or f or n (nonanimate)
- Portuguese: eles (pt) m, elas (pt) f
- Quechua: paykuna (qu)
- Rapa Nui: raua
- Romani: on
- Kalo Finnish Romani: joon
- Vlax Romani: von
- Romanian: ei (ro) m, ele (ro) f, dumnealor m pl or f pl (formal, polite)
- Romansch: els m, ellas f
- Russian: они́ (ru) (oní)
- Rusyn: вни́ (vný)
- Saho: usun
- Scots: thay
- Scottish Gaelic: (nonemphatic) iad, (emphatic) iadsan
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: они m pl, оне f pl, она n pl
- Roman: oni m pl, one (sh) f pl, ona (sh) n pl
- Shan: please add this translation if you can
- Shor: ылар (ılar)
- Sicilian: iddi (scn), idde f
- Sidamo: insa
- Sinhalese: ඔවුහු (owuhu), ඔව්හු (owhu), ඔවුන් (owun), එයාලා (eyālā) (informal)
- Slovak: oni m pl, ony f pl or n pl
- Slovene: ôni (sl) m, ône (sl) f, ôna (sl) n
- Sorbian:
- Lower Sorbian: wóni
- Southern Altai: олор (olor)
- Spanish: ellos (es) m, ellas (es) f, (neologism) elles (es) n
- Sranan Tongo: den
- Swahili: wao
- Swedish: de (sv), dom (sv)
- Sylheti: ꠔꠣꠁꠘ (tain), ꠔꠣꠞꠣ (tara)
- Tagalog: (ng form) nila, (sa form) kanila, (unmarked form) sila (tl)
- Tajik: эшон (tg) (ešon), онҳо (tg) (onho)
- Tamil: அவர் (ta) (avar), இவர் (ta) (ivar)
- Taos: ą́wąną
- Tatar: алар (alar)
- Telugu: వారు (te) (vāru), వాళ్ళు (vāḷḷu)
- Tetum: sira
- Thai: เขา (th) (kǎo), พวกเขา (pûuak-kǎo)
- Tibetan: ཁོང་ཚོ (khong tsho) (ordinary), ཁོ་རང་ཚོ (kho rang tsho) (familiar male), མོ་རང་ཚོ (mo rang tsho) (familiar female)
- Tigrinya: ንሳቶም m (nəsatom), ንሳተን f (nəsatän)
- Tlingit: hás
- Tok Pisin: ol (tpi)
- Turkish: onlar (tr)
- Turkmen: olar
- Ukrainian: вони́ (uk) (voný)
- Urdu: وہ (ve, vah), یہ (ye, yah)
- Uyghur: ئۇلار (ular)
- Uzbek: ular (uz)
- Venetian: lori (vec) m pl, lore (vec) f pl, łore, łori, łuri
- Veps: hö
- Vietnamese: họ (vi)
- Volapük: (masculine) oms (vo), (feminine) ofs (vo), (neuter or mixed gender) ons (vo)
- Welsh: (literary) hwy, (literary) hwynt, (spoken) nhw
- West Frisian: hja (fy), sy (fy), se
- Wolof: ñoom (wo)
- Yiddish: זיי (zey)
- Yoruba: (weak pronoun) wọ́n, (strong pronoun) àwọn
- Yucatec Maya: letiʼob
- Zealandic: ‘ulder, (unemphatic) ze
- Zhuang: dohde, vajde, hongminz, mbongmiz, gyoengqde
- Zulu: bona class 2 (usually for people), yona class 4, wona class 6, zona class 8, zona class 10
- ǃKung: si (people), hi (animals, things)
- ǃXóõ: ùh, (emphatic) ùhʻù
I know that they, them, and their did not exist in Old English. What language are they derived from?
tchrist♦
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asked Aug 8, 2011 at 16:38
1
Old English had a set of plural pronouns that were very similar to the masculine/feminine pronouns, differing only in the vowels. The third person plural pronoun was:
Nom: hīe [hiːə], Acc: hīe, Dat: him, Gen: hira
These gradually fell out of use to be replaced by the Old Norse word þeir, originally meaning «those». This was partly because the sound changes from Old English to Middle English would have caused many of the 3rd-person pronouns to become identical. In particular, if the word hīe had not been replaced by þeir, it would eventually have been pronounced identically to «she»!
answered Aug 8, 2011 at 17:03
3
It is the impact of the Norse settlement in England and the fact that modern English is not directly rooted in the Wessex version of standard old English. After Normans conquered England they moved the capital back from Winchester to London and proceeded to ban English from being used for governance and administrative purposes for 200 years. As a result standard old English based on the Wessex dialect went into decline and disappeared. In the meantime the Anglo-Norse dialects of what was to be later called the Danelaw became the dominant form of English spoken in London and most of East Anglia the Midlands and the north. After the ban on English was lifted towards the end of the 13th century the Anglo-Norse variety of English already established in London became the official language and more or less what we call early Middle English. The language was a fusion of Anglian Old English and Old East Norse spoken by the Danish settlers in East midlands, Yorkshire and East Anglia up to London North of the Thames.
Their variety of English was significantly different from the Anglo Saxon as we know it which was largely based on one dialect that of Wessex. Given the fact that there was never one form old English spoken in England but as many as 5 different varieties however most of written old English is in the Wessex dialect hence the mistake people make of equating it to be standard old English whereas it is more akin to old Saxon or Old Frisian. Anglic dialects may have already contained proto Norse elements at the time they arrived in England but they were certainly not a single dialect and over time may have become less mutually intelligible with Wessex than they originally were.
answered Jun 3, 2022 at 10:13
1
A brief history of singular ‘they’
Singular they has become the pronoun of choice to replace he and she in cases where the gender of the antecedent – the word the pronoun refers to – is unknown, irrelevant, or nonbinary, or where gender needs to be concealed. It’s the word we use for sentences like Everyone loves his mother.
But that’s nothing new. The Oxford English Dictionary traces singular they back to 1375, where it appears in the medieval romance William and the Werewolf. Except for the old-style language of that poem, its use of singular they to refer to an unnamed person seems very modern. Here’s the Middle English version: ‘Hastely hiȝed eche . . . þei neyȝþed so neiȝh . . . þere william & his worþi lef were liand i-fere.’ In modern English, that’s: ‘Each man hurried . . . till they drew near . . . where William and his darling were lying together.’
Since forms may exist in speech long before they’re written down, it’s likely that singular they was common even before the late fourteenth century. That makes an old form even older.
In the eighteenth century, grammarians began warning that singular they was an error because a plural pronoun can’t take a singular antecedent. They clearly forgot that singular you was a plural pronoun that had become singular as well. You functioned as a polite singular for centuries, but in the seventeenth century singular you replaced thou, thee, and thy, except for some dialect use. That change met with some resistance. In 1660, George Fox, the founder of Quakerism, wrote a whole book labeling anyone who used singular you an idiot or a fool. And eighteenth-century grammarians like Robert Lowth and Lindley Murray regularly tested students on thou as singular, you as plural, despite the fact that students used singular you when their teachers weren’t looking, and teachers used singular you when their students weren’t looking. Anyone who said thou and thee was seen as a fool and an idiot, or a Quaker, or at least hopelessly out of date.
Singular you has become normal and unremarkable. Also unremarkable are the royal we and, in countries without a monarchy, the editorial we: first-person plurals used regularly as singulars and nobody calling anyone an idiot and a fool. And singular they is well on its way to being normal and unremarkable as well. Toward the end of the twentieth century, language authorities began to approve the form. The New Oxford Dictionary of English (1998) not only accepts singular they, they also use the form in their definitions. And the New Oxford American Dictionary (Third Edition, 2010), calls singular they ‘generally accepted’ with indefinites, and ‘now common but less widely accepted’ with definite nouns, especially in formal contexts.
Not everyone is down with singular they. The well-respected Chicago Manual of Style still rejects singular they for formal writing, and just the other day a teacher told me that he still corrects students who use everyone … their in their papers, though he probably uses singular they when his students aren’t looking. Last Fall, a transgender Florida school teacher was removed from their fifth-grade classroom for asking their students to refer to them with the gender-neutral singular they. And two years ago, after the Diversity Office at the University of Tennessee suggested that teachers ask their students, ‘What’s your pronoun?’ because some students might prefer an invented nonbinary pronoun like zie or something more conventional, like singular they, the Tennessee state legislature passed a law banning the use of taxpayer dollars for gender-neutral pronouns, despite the fact that no one knows how much a pronoun actually costs.
It’s no surprise that Tennessee, the state that banned the teaching of evolution in 1925, also failed to stop the evolution of English one hundred years later, because the fight against singular they was already lost by the time eighteenth-century critics began objecting to it. In 1794, a contributor to the New Bedford Medley mansplains to three women that the singular they they used in an earlier essay in the newspaper was grammatically incorrect and does no ‘honor to themselves, or the female sex in general.’ To which they honourably reply that they used singular they on purpose because ‘we wished to conceal the gender,’ and they challenge their critic to invent a new pronoun if their politically-charged use of singular they upsets him so much. More recently, a colleague who is otherwise conservative told me that they found singular they useful ‘when talking about what certain people in my field say about other people in my field as a way of concealing the identity of my source.’
Former Chief Editor of the OED Robert Burchfield, in The New Fowler’s Dictionary of Modern English Usage (1996), dismisses objections to singular they as unsupported by the historical record. Burchfield observes that the construction is ‘passing unnoticed’ by speakers of standard English as well as by copy editors, and he concludes that this trend is ‘irreversible’. People who want to be inclusive, or respectful of other people’s preferences, use singular they. And people who don’t want to be inclusive, or who don’t respect other people’s pronoun choices, use singular they as well. Even people who object to singular they as a grammatical error use it themselves when they’re not looking, a sure sign that anyone who objects to singular they is, if not a fool or an idiot, at least hopelessly out of date.
The opinions and other information contained in the OED blog posts and comments do
not necessarily reflect the opinions or positions of Oxford University Press.
Professor of English and linguistics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Read Dennis’s blog, The Web of Language, and follow him on Twitter as @DrGrammar.
When did “they” become a singular pronoun?
Was it in 2010, 2015 or 2017? No. “They” was considered a singular pronoun far earlier (at least as early as the 1300’s). Even as the grammar rules changed on using Singular They, famous writers such as Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, Henry James, and F. Scott Fitzgerald used “they” as a singular pronoun.
But many of us were taught that using “they” as a singular pronoun was wrong. In conversation, we would say sentences like:
When someone drives through our neighborhood they need to slow down because there are a lot of children around.
However, if you wrote that sentence in an essay, email, or even flyer (like one of my friends did) someone would come along and replace “they” with “he/she.”
Why was it different in speech than in writing? Originally, the rule was that you could use “they” as I did in the first sentence.
Then grammarians came along and changed everything.
Why? Well, let’s dive into the history of why it changed and why Singular They is accepted again.
Singular They
First , what is Singular They?
It is the use of “they” “their” and “them” as 3d person singular pronouns when a person’s gender is unknown. Here’s an example:
A writer needs to create a compelling scene, so they capture their readers’ attention.
You don’t know the gender of the writer, so you use the word they to refer back to the writer.
In recent years, the definition has expanded. “They” is also used as a singular pronoun when a person does not identify as “he” or “she,” and identifies with a nonbinary gender.
Throughout history, it has always been accepted in speech and now it’s accepted in writing.
History of Singular They
The Origin
The Oxford English Dictionary states that Singular They can be seen in writing as far back as 1375 in a poem called William the Werewolf. It probably existed much earlier, but that is the earliest written text that’s been found.
The poem is in Middle English which differs from Modern English. You have to muddle through the text to see what words represent the Modern English words, “they” and “their.”
The post, “The Brief History of Singular They” https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/# will give you a clear translation of William the Werewolf from Middle English to Modern English.
Even after the Middle English period, “they” was accepted as a singular pronoun when the gender of the person referred to is unknown.
You can find several authors who used “they” as a singular pronoun. When this grammar rule changed in the mid-1700s to declare “they” as no longer a singular pronoun writers still used it.
In Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice Elizabeth says to Darcy, “ To be sure you knew of no actual good of me—but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love” (Austen 374).
The Universal Singular Pronoun “He”
In 1745 Anne Fisher wrote the book, A New Grammar in which she called “he” the universal singular pronoun. “He” would represent both male and female singular pronouns.
Grammarians caught onto this idea and Singular They was no more. https://www.thoughtco.com/singular-they-grammar-1691963
This rule became standard practice for formal writing. For centuries writers only used male pronouns to represent all people. You had sentences like this:
A writer needs to create a compelling opening scene, so he captures his readers’ attention.
The problem is how this was interpreted. Not everyone considered “he” as a universal pronoun. “He” read as the pronoun for man. Specific roles of leadership like a professor, doctor, president, etc. used the pronoun “he.”
However, in writing “she” became the pronoun of choice in roles people believed to be traditionally female like a nurse.
People didn’t only use “he” as a universal pronoun.
Otherwise they would have continued using “he” with “nurse.” They read different singular nouns as belonging to either a man or a woman.
The state of pronouns remained this way until the next big change in the 1970s.
The Use of “He/She” or “He or She”
The use of “he” in writing changed, and people began using he/she, him/her, himself/herself, etc. because women weren’t represented in language.
Here’ an example of how those singular pronouns look in writing.
A writer needs to create a compelling opening scene, so he/ she captures his/her readers’ attention.
Some people who disliked the slash between these pronouns used “he or she”, “him or her” etc. Now, women were represented.
However, for many writers, this looked awkward in writing. You don’t want an essay, paper, article, or blog post filled with he/she dashes because it disturbs the writing flow. Also, we don’t speak like this.
Do you say he/ she aloud? Unless you’re an English teacher at a family reunion where one of your relatives peppers you with grammar questions, I doubt you do. Most people use Singular They in conversation.
In formal writing, many style guides suggested using a plural noun, so that you can use “they,” “their” and “them.”
Writers need to create a compelling opening scene, so they capture their readers’ attention.
This approach looks and sounds better, doesn’t it? But you can’t always change a noun from singular to plural.
In this case, you could use “one” “an individual” or “person.” Another method some writers choose is to alternate between “he” and “she” when writing about people.
These solutions all address the awkwardness of “he/she,” but now the debate against “he/she” is that it does not include people who are of a nonbinary gender.
A nonbinary person is someone who doesn’t identify themselves as male or female (transgender, gender-fluid, etc.).
So, one of the ways to be more inclusive is to use “they” as a singular pronoun
The Comeback
Around 2015, Singular They started making a comeback. Not just because it flows well in sentences and is what we use in conversation, but because it is a gender-neutral pronoun.
Several colleges, educational organizations and writing guides recognize it. It is accepted by:
- The Associated Press
- Chicago Manual Style
- Modern Language Association
- Oxford English Dictionary
- National Council of English Teachers (NCTE)
- The American Dialect Society voted it the 2015 Word of the Year. https://www.americandialect.org/2015-word-of-the-year-is-singular-they?_ga=2.78133332.131299676.1563378018-946699587.1563378018
In the post “Chicago Style for the Singular They” The Chicago Manual of Style explains their position “Chicago accepts this use of singular they in speech and informal writing… CMOS 17 does not prohibit the use of singular they as a substitute for the generic he in formal writing…” http://cmosshoptalk.com/2017/04/03/chicago-style-for-the-singular-they/?_ga=2.215891415.131299676.1563378018-946699587.1563378018
They prefer people try other methods of avoiding gender bias over Singular They (3rd person plural nouns with pronouns, etc.). But ,they also add that anyone who does not identify with a gender-specific pronoun such as he or she can use Singular They to describe themselves.
In its October 3rd, 2018 post the Modern Language Association announced a similar position https://style.mla.org/singular-they/. The Grammarly Blog https://www.grammarly.com/blog/use-the-singular-they/ also listed the APA Style Manual as another writing style guide that accepts Singular They.
Singular They is correct, right?
Yes, but…
Not everyone agrees with or likes the acceptance of Singular They. In the article, “The War on Grammar” https://www.nationalreview.com/2016/10/gender-pronouns-job-titles/ the National Review calls Singular They not only wrong but “destructive.” Instead, they refer back to the grammar rule that the universal singular 3rd person pronoun is “he.”
As for me, I care about how people use language more than grammar rules from the mid-1750s. I use Singular They in speech and now I’ll use it in writing.
Should you use it in your writing?
It’s up to you, but I say go for it.
People accept it in speech, informal writing, fiction, nonfiction etc. More organizations and style guides are approving it. Language changes.
Grammar rules change–just look at the history of Singular They. It went from acceptable, to people using “he” and from that to using “he/she” pronouns.
Now, it changes again.
Yes, if you use it in writing some readers will reject it. I’m sure this will happen with blog posts I write.
When it does, I will send them the link to this blog post.