They/Them pronouns

#pridemonth #shorts

[doctorslayer]

Is it me or the THEY/THEM is like straight out of a Horror Movie Title.

[orlovszki]

My language does not have pronouns. Hence we do not have these problems. Ridiculous

[Hhaappppyy]

Im here for some clarity. After watching this i am more confused.

[gozerthegozarian]

The singular "they" has been in use ever since the times of the motherloving Canterbury Tales! It's older than the second person pronoun "you" - folks were still "thee-ing" and "thou-ing" back then. It is literally used in several Shakespeare plays, so when today's journos and media types pretend it's "not proper English" or disingenuously feign struggling to use it ( * cough * Piers Morgan * cough *), you know the're full of it!

[MosaidDeath]

I’m a man and if someone calls me “she” it’s not going to have any effect on me at all. why? Because i know not everyone is going to like me, or “get” me. And my gender is not my identity. Who cares!? You know who you are, don’t worry so much about what others think.

[less_likely]

“Oh no, someone left behind THEIR phone, I hope we can find out who THEY are, and return it to THEM”. Seems pretty singular to me.

[BY]

I call people by name.. I refuse to use Pronouns anymore

[jodipaterson]

My father insists on calling me "it" if I ever ask him to stop gendering me

[MeddlSchamane]

English isn't my first language and I had never heard of a singular they before but understood how it worked after one example. I just don't see how this is confusing to native speakers.

[sarahjanecottrell]

Do you prefer 'themself' or 'themselves' for the reflexive? As in: They went to the store by themself/themselves? I'm torn, because 'themselves' sounds more natural, but maybe it's nice to have a specific singular pronoun in that spot when discussing a singular individual?? I would especially love to hear from they/them users about this, thanks! (for context, I am a cis woman who is a mom of a gender questioning teen, and also an instructional assistant at our local high school, and a bit of a language nerd)

[duncandownham]

If they ask me to, I will use them/they.

Sometimes I do it when I am unsure, and sometimes I do it because I am Australian and we do English weird. I can be a touch forgetful and not perfect, so no doubt I may stuff it up at times. But if corrected I will apologise, and try to refer to them in the manner that wish (but if your name is super long and/or hard to pronounce, the name will be shortened with a O or a Azza on the end. It's pretty common here, cause Australia, just ask Davo or Gazza)

And yes, we are aware Gary is shorter than than Gazza. Counterpoint, it's Australia. I feel I might of mentioned that before but it explains a lot.

[NichtcrawlerX]

My issue was never that it is only plural, it clearly is both, more that it is more generic than other pronouns. So someone choosing they/them for themselves, has always been a bit weird for me. But probably, just like me not fully understanding people wanting to change their name, it comes from a background of me being comfortable with my name and being comfortable with whatever pronouns use for me on their own. Combine that with being somewhere on both spectra and things can get complicated for my brain, but with time I learn.

[Alverant]

It does take time. At work I try to use they/them when referring to unnamed people. I do IT work for a professional association and customer service would often contact me with "A member is having this problem..." and never tell me WHO the member is. That's critical information because we don't know if there is an actual problem or they are trying to do something they're not allowed to do.

[leeshizzle]

it's great that the pronoun "they" exists in english! in portuguese we don't already have a pronoun that works, so people are creating new ones. also it gets really complicated with adjectives and articles changing acording to the (binary) gender of the pronouns

[EmeralBookwise]

My mother is a bit stubborn on this particular subject. She's generally pretty open minded and accommodating, but she's got a specific hang up over they/them being exclusively plural because she's an old school English major. Also a lawyer and so doubly prickly about language needing to be exact and precise to avoid any legal ambiguity.

Funny thing is, after doing a little of my own research, turns out there's actually a long history in the English language of people going back and forth over the contextual use of they/them. While the use by non-binary individuals is more recent, the usage to refer to an unknown individual comes up quite a bit... especially in instances where laws that were ostensibly written using the unidentified version of he/him have been interpreted by courts to exclude women.

[EinfachPaul]

for people with multiple personality disorder yes, but language was invented to communicate and Not more. Its like: Now i do not call an tree a tree, now i call it cat. You need to get used to it.😂

[jujublue]

I mean, in English "you" is used both for singular and plural, nobody says "thou" anymore so why would it be a problem for "they/them" ? Languages evolve.

[sarahelkord]

Hello,
i wanted to ask you
if You can choose if you want youre prounouns to be
they/them it/its she/they he/they she/her he/him.
Is it like optinal or?
(sorry if i forgot any pronouns😅)

[sebastianesilva]

English teacher here and the singular THEY is perfectly common and normal. Been around since forever.

EXAMPLE: Someone left THEIR bag in the staff room.

In this case it basically just means a person of unidentified gender.

[jpA]

I find that reading articles about people who use they them pronouns often is difficult if not impossible for me. Funny thing is I can use them in causal conversation rather easily.