They/Them

They/them, also referred to as "singular they", is a gender-neutral pronoun set and one of the four extant 3rd person pronoun sets found in contemporary English alongside he, she, and it. They are one of the two neutral 3rd person pronouns in the language (the other being it) and are considered the more respectful of the two, as it is most frequently used to describe objects, non-human animals, or babies of an unknown sex.

The idea that singular they is grammatically incorrect continues in some areas to the modern day, although it is almost never followed in speech; most individuals frequently use singular they when referring to an unknown person ("someone left their coat here").

Many individuals use singular they as their personal pronoun to avoid the gendered connotations of he and she, hence its frequently used among non-binary people.

How To Use[]

Case	Pronoun	Pronunciation	Example
Nominative	They	Thay	They went to the store
Accusative	Them	Thehm	I met them today
Pronominal Possessive	Their	Thayr	They walked their dog today
Predicative Possessive	Theirs	Thayrs	If I need a phone my friend will let me borrow theirs
Reflexive	Themself or Themselves	Thehmself or Thehm-selvs	They have to drive themself to school OR They have to drive themselves to school

History[]

The Oxford English Dictionary traces singular they back to as early as 1375, and throughout the Middle Ages and Renaissance it was used as a singular gender neutral pronoun, making it one of the oldest third person pronouns in the English language still in use today. It predates the transition of plural you into singular you in Early Middle English through the 15th to 17th centuries (1470-1600s).^[2]

However, in the 18th century prescriptive grammarians declared that they should only be used when referring to multiple people, and suggested using a "gender-neutral He" (similar to French) as an alternative. Reasons given at the time were that, firstly, Latin did not have a singular neutral pronoun, and as Latin was considered a superior language, it was thought that English should be more like Latin. Secondly, when plural pronouns are used, certain verbs change form, such as "he was" vs "they were". These verbs always change when they is used, even when in the singular, which was seen as an unacceptable inconsistency according to prescriptivists. These prescriptivists also attempted to erase singular subjective you and re-introduce 2nd person subjective thou for the same reason, though evidently their attempts at that were less successful.^[2]

They/Them

Contents

How To Use[]

History[]

Flags[]

References[]

See Also[]