Talk:They

Singular They

An anonymous user had changed "is a special case of this pronoun" to "is an incorrect use of this pronoun". I reverted it back. It is NPOV to state that it is incorrect. The article already documents that this usage is disputed. Wikipedia ought not to judge this correct or incorrect, only acknowledge how people actually use the word, and link to the dispute.--RLent (talk) 20:22, 4 February 2008 (UTC).
As a matter of fact, I find the example sentences cited for the putative use of singular "they" not quite informative:

1. I say to each person in this room: may they enjoy themselves tonight!
2. Anyone who arrives at the door can let themself in using this key.
3. "If a person is born of a ... gloomy temper ... they cannot help it."— Chesterfield, Letter to his son (1759)

- Although the first example is grammatically correct, it sounds stylistically awkward: you would expect the person "I" to address each person rather as follows: "may you enjoy yourselves tonight!". The potentially harsh tone of commands can be softened with the impersonal "they", but obviously, the hortative nature of the wish of enjoyment rather requires a "personal touch"!
- In the second example, the impersonal pronoun "anyone" requires a matching, impersonal anaphor, hence "they". Ditto for the last example, with "a person" being synonymous with the impersonal pronoun "anyone".
In short, these examples merely illustrate the impersonal use of "they" (which is obviously frequently attested in the English language), but not its singular use. BTW, "impersonal" is not the same as "gender neutral".

Anonymous

As noted by many historians, singular "they" was often used as "de facto" gender-neutral pronoun along with the presumption of "he". Also within the last 100 years or so "they" has become taboo for gender neutral pronouns. It seems silly to omit one group of people by potentially offending another (using "her" as a gender neutral pronoun in place of "he"). Likewise, it also seems silly to invent a pronoun when the language already has use of another one (itself a borrowed word). "They" was a commonly used pronoun for 3S, until British parliament ordered "he" be used for a generic 3S. To say "they" 3S is taboo when it has historical precedent is ostrich-like behavior :-) http://www.princeton.edu/~achaney/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Singular_they.html http://www.psmag.com/culture/gender-neutral-pronouns-actually-doomed-67600/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by 158.145.224.113 (talk) 01:28, 30 January 2014 (UTC)

What is 3S? -- SGBailey (talk) 07:33, 21 December 2025 (UTC)

[3rd]/[Third]-person Singular? Spike 'em (talk) 11:25, 11 May 2026 (UTC)

name

The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

The result of the move request was: not moved. Armbrust ^{The Homunculus} 08:27, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

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They → They (pronoun)They (pronoun) – article about word 73.183.64.164 (talk) 00:35, 22 June 2014 (UTC)

• Oppose. Article about the word should remain as the primary topic of the term "They". No sufficient reason has been provided otherwise. An article about the word, or any other subject, does not automatically disqualify it from being a primary topic. Zzyzx11 (talk) 02:12, 22 June 2014 (UTC)
• Oppose. This is clearly the primary topic. Kennethaw88 • talk 14:33, 22 June 2014 (UTC)
• Oppose. Per above, and per WP:CONCISE. Johnny338 (talk) 03:35, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
• Oppose per above - Clearly a primary topic. –Davey2010 • (talk) 18:07, 23 June 2014 (UTC)
• Comment Did you notice this one? You are just wasting your time adding this individually. Next time, follow this format.

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j3j3j3...pfH0wHz 07:50, 28 June 2014 (UTC)

@3oWh pF0wHz: - Please Assume Good Faith and read WP:CIVIL while you're at it, The IP is probably new and not aware of bundling them and you having a go at him isn't helpful!. –Davey2010 • (talk) 14:44, 28 June 2014 (UTC)

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The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.

Morphology

"In Standard Modern English, they has five distinct word forms." Yet the list is of six forms. -- SGBailey (talk) 07:31, 21 December 2025 (UTC)