'They' Is Irritating Me Immensely

[barry1010]

Police appeal for missing person shows a photo of a 25 year old 'manly' man named Alec. Police say they need to know that 'they' are okay.

One man is missing. Stop mangling language 😡

[Auntypoll]

This is hilarious 😂 isn't there a rule on AB stating users must be addressed by their preferred user name, and if not will be suspended ? 😂

[Ellipsis]

> Ellipsis, I was referring to West Midlands Police.

Here's a recent one:

https://www.west-midlands.police.uk/news/fresh-appeal-missing-ebenezer

But that's it. I'm very uncomfortable using real missing people to make a point about personal pronouns ... I'm done on this thread.

[Auntypoll]

I will not address a biological man as she as he is not a she. I have no problem using 'they' when referring to them. Surely by using they you are not referring directly to them. It is no big deal to say 'are they coming' rather than 'is he/she coming.' And guess what? I do know they can refer to singular and plural but thanks for pointing that out. 🤣🤣🤣

[douglas9401]

Answerbank rules tend to be strong suggestions rather than handed down on tablets of stone.

 

It's the administration of those rules that leads to problems with varying interpretations depending on who gets in first but the wagons circle regardless of right or wrong. A bit like trying to get the polis to admit an error.

 

In my opinion.

[puzzled54]

But my point was they are now being called by what was the male version of the word ( actor, sculptor) implying that the male is more important 

[Gill1941]

I would say it is "sexist" to call actresses, lionesses, etc by the masculine  version of a word not calling them by the feminine version.

Too many people taking umbrage nowadays. All a load of snowflakes.

[SparklyKid]

flipping heck , just been to the loo, guess what. meat and two veg . makes me 100% male.  i would post a pic but all of us has one set of genatia or the other. i know there genetic freaks of nature , that person related to  royalty.  all this non binary etc is total nonsense.

[pastafreak]

Cloverjo@12:35...I seem to recall at the time that it was more to do with privacy then the baby's gender.

[naomi24]

Auntypoll, what has this got to do with AnswerBank rules?  

[pastafreak]

Good grief...they has been in use for over 600 years. Its only discussions like this that twist it into something it's not. Relax folks.

From Wikipedia...In December 2019, Merriam-Webster chose singular they as word of the year. The word was chosen because "English famously lacks a gender-neutral singular pronoun to correspond neatly with singular pronouns like everyone or someone, and as a consequence they has been used for this purpose for over 600 years."[13]

[SparklyKid]

gender neutral ??????????????????????

load of cobblers, check inside your underear, the clues are there.

[naomi24]

'They' singular - Word of the year 2019.  No need to ask why - and so fashionable too.

[douglas9401]

If a person has a problem with (whatever) then they can...

 

It's not rocket as someone repeats and repeats but I expect this to continue past the point of reason until sleep defeats us all.

[sp1814]

Bloody hell...I think we should all thank our lucky stars that this is the top of the pile for some.

[douglas9401]

Just something to hold the attention while there's a lull in the fitba and the election.

[jourdain2]

We have 'it' as a singular, neutral pronoun - that's what I would use if someone insisted (although I'd try to avoid the situation arising in the first place).

There are precedents - German uses 'Das' as a neutral pronoun e.g. 'Das Madchen' (the girl).  Anyone who finds it a problem is being rather 'precious' and neurotic i.m.o..

[brainiac]

No accounting for genders of words in other languages: 'sun' is feminine in German, masculine in French; 'moon' is masculine in German, feminine in French.

 

Oh, and 'vagina' is masculine in French!  Go figure.

[jourdain2]

I know that well, brainiac - equally it is 'la prostate'.  Generally speaking it seemed to work out that anything men liked got feminine - and the converse.  Not a hard and fast rule, but we found lots of instances.

As I say, there is always 'it'.

'I, You, He/She/It and We,You They ' -  is how you conjugate a verb in English, have done for generations, and I'll stick to that.

[brainiac]

jourdain2 - I don't think men are fond of 'la prostate', I certainly am not of mine  :)

[Ellipsis]

> Good grief...they has been in use for over 600 years
Yep ...

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

Somebody left their umbrella in the office. Could you please let them know where they can get it?