How can they be a pronoun for one person?
Elementary English
teachers tend to go over the basic pronouns. Those are the words in the English
language that can be subbed in when nouns (people, places, or things) aren’t up
for playing … or when it just takes too much time to say the full noun form.
I, he, she, and you are all pronouns you
might have learned along the way. Maybe you also learned that they were used to
refer to singular nouns or words that describe just one person, one place, or
one thing. “I am going to eat chocolate for breakfast.” is a sentence that you
automatically know is just about you, the one person who is living their best
life with a decadent daily treat.
But, you notice how we just
used they when we
were talking about a whole bunch of pronouns? They is often used as something called
a plural pronoun, a word that’s used to describe multiple people, places, or
things. They all read Dictionary.com, for example, would probably mean a bunch
of really cool logophiles sat around on a Friday night looking for
definitions together, right? (Hey, we tried).
But, they is not only a plural
pronoun.
This chameleon word is also
a singular pronoun, and it has been for centuries. Etymologists estimate that
as far back as the 1300s, they has been used as a
gender neutral pronoun, a word that was substituted in place of either he (a masculine singular
pronoun) or she (a
feminine singular pronoun).
They is actually an
extremely useful word
When we don’t know the
gender of the person we’re talking about, they really comes in handy. We even used a
variation of it earlier—Did you catch where we said their? Scroll back up!
It’s also a good way for
people who don’t identify with the binary genders of female and male to describe
themselves because they and them are not gendered.
Sharing our pronouns is a
way of sharing our gender identity with the world. You might identify as female
and ask that people refer to you as she/her. Or, maybe you identify as
male and your friends use he/him when they talk about
you. For other folks, they/them are
the appropriate pronouns to use.
So, next time someone
asks you to use they in
the singular, tell them you’re on board.
The dictionary approves!