this post was submitted on 28 Apr 2024
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Microblog Memes

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Perhaps it was the English teachers who were wrong.

Correct or not, people have been using it like that for a while.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

[–] [email protected] 18 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago)

Fascinating! I didn’t know there was an article about this.

This use of singular they had emerged by the 14th century, about a century after the plural they.

That’s more than official enough for me!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Singular they has been criticised since the mid-18th century by prescriptive commentators who consider it an error.

  1. Hey, it's prescriptivists again, ruining everyone's day
  2. Look what's actually recent (if three centuries count as recent, but definitely more recent than seven centuries ago)
[–] dojan 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

My child dresses itself.

"Ma, I'm a boy!"

I adore how callous that sentence sounds.