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Singular they rule (pawb.social)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

31 comments fedilink hide all child comments

ALT TEXT:

Panel 1: A person with the text "Singular 'they'" written on them smiling with open arms.
Panel 2: "Singular 'They'" beaten up by others who said, "Singular they is ungrammatical. It's too confusing," "How can anyone use plural pronouns for singular," and "Every pronoun should only have one purpose."
Panel 3: "You" hiding from the mob who was beating "Singular 'They'"
Panel 4: "German 'Sie'" hiding with even more fear next to "You"

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

“They left their wallet on the table” it sounds like you’re referring to multiple people instead of a singular person.

Does it? If multiple people left multiple wallets on the table, it would be, "They left their wallets on the table." Multiple people can't really leave a single wallet behind. Or at least that would be very unusual and unintuitive.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

True. I'll change it to a (hopefully) better example.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

"They forgot to pay their bill" it sounds like you're referring to multiple people instead of a singular person.

This sounds normal to me, how else would you word it?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

If it was a singular customer, I would say "He forgot to pay his bill" (or she/her depending on the gender).