this post was submitted on 23 Oct 2024
79 points (96.5% liked)
Asklemmy
43947 readers
638 users here now
A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions
Search asklemmy π
If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!
- Open-ended question
- Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
- Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
- Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
- An actual topic of discussion
Looking for support?
Looking for a community?
- Lemmyverse: community search
- sub.rehab: maps old subreddits to fediverse options, marks official as such
- !lemmy411@lemmy.ca: a community for finding communities
~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Why isn't it just common practice jmto just use "they" instead the entirely cumbersome "he/her"?
Like it's just so much easier to type out and say, and it's just better to use regardless.
The fun part is that you'll have people complaining about it either way!
Yea, but the people who complain about "they" are assholes so we can safely ignore them.
I am offended by your use of 'people', that excludes folk and kin!
Rawr!
You were not appreciated in your time.
Not only is it more readable and aesthetically-pleasing, singular "they" is more inclusive of people outside the gender binary!
Love how the top comment doesn't even answer the question. But TIL, I guess. If I had known this option existed, I probably would have used it. I'm going to play the "not a native english speaker"-card on this one.
Because "they" refers to multiple people?
It doesn't though. They has been used for singular without knowing the gender for a long time.
Like at least since English has been a language.
Singular "they" actually predates singular "you".
My friend forgot their umbrella at the office.
They nervously answered the phone.
They're a lazy motherfucker.
I gave my friend a hug and wished them a speedy recovery.
Any of those sound unusual, or like they're referring to more than one person?
I was taught this very aggressively in school, but it turns out that itβs just not true and thereβs a long history of singular they.