Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

"They" is confusing, as it can be singular or plural.


Yeah, it's really confusing. "You" has the same problem, so I try to avoid that too. /s


Huh, I never knew "you" was also plural. Practically never heard it used that way.


The second person plural in my parents' idiolect of English is "you", but in mine there's effectively a familiar/formal dichotomy of "you guys" and "you", with the latter rarely used. In the American South, many people use "you" for singular and "y'all" for plural. I wouldn't be surprised if other dialects are also losing the plural "you".


And also "yous" (or "youse") is used as a plural "you" in regions of Australia.


Its the equvilent of the hillbilly term "thems" in the US of A.


Most of the time, context alleviates that confusion pretty quickly. "The developer of AppX [blah blah]. They wrote it in C#". Etc.

A lot of closeted or previously closeted homosexuals can tell you that it's not that terribly confusing. I used "they" for years to refer to a singular person. After coming out, I was accused of lying. My response was that I'd never lied about the gender of someone I was seeing or referring to. No one ever asked.

Which ironically plays into a whole different set of gender assumptions, but that's a can of worms I don't want to open in an already dangerous thread.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: