I was trying to convey this to my mom several years ago as she was trying to wrap her mind around trans people and how some use the pronouns they/them. She couldn’t believe me when I said it was already a grammatical convention to use they as a singular pronoun. I remember saying “imagine finding someone left a black coat in a movie theatre and you find it. You could say when you leave it at the lost and found, ‘I hope they come back to get their coat’, as you don’t know the gender of who it belongs to.” I was very confident that would get through to her. Nope, she insisted she would say “I hope he or she gets their coat!”
Some people just dig their heels in when they’re wrong.
In fairness, “they” is usually used when either the gender is unknown or the person is known to use they/them pronouns. I think in this case, vga is objecting to using it when the gender is known. It is a little unusual but “they” is still gramatically acceptable to use for a man or woman when the gender is known
I was trying to convey this to my mom several years ago as she was trying to wrap her mind around trans people and how some use the pronouns they/them. She couldn’t believe me when I said it was already a grammatical convention to use they as a singular pronoun. I remember saying “imagine finding someone left a black coat in a movie theatre and you find it. You could say when you leave it at the lost and found, ‘I hope they come back to get their coat’, as you don’t know the gender of who it belongs to.” I was very confident that would get through to her. Nope, she insisted she would say “I hope he or she gets their coat!”
Some people just dig their heels in when they’re wrong.
The best part is, she still unknowingly used singular they. “I hope he or she gets THEIR coat”
lol yup. I recall saying, “It’s ok to admit it makes you feel uncomfortable, but the truth is that this isn’t a new grammatical construct”.
In fairness, “they” is usually used when either the gender is unknown or the person is known to use they/them pronouns. I think in this case, vga is objecting to using it when the gender is known. It is a little unusual but “they” is still gramatically acceptable to use for a man or woman when the gender is known