ALT TEXT:
- Panel 1: A person with the text “Singular ‘they’” written on them smiling with open arms.
- Panel 2: “Singular ‘They’” beaten up by others who said, “Singular they is ungrammatical. It’s too confusing,” “How can anyone use plural pronouns for singular,” and “Every pronoun should only have one purpose.”
- Panel 3: “You” hiding from the mob who was beating “Singular ‘They’”
- Panel 4: “German ‘Sie’” hiding with even more fear next to “You”
It’s using they to refer to a single person. Some people think it’s only supposed to be used for a group, but that’s completely wrong. It’s been used to refer to singular people since at least Shakespeare, if not longer. For example: “if some_one_ tells you they is singular, they are mindlessly consuming right wing media and not considering if it’s actually correct.”
This misses an important distinction that singular they was never used to refer to a known, specific individual until recently, and was certainly never used by Shakespeare that way.
It literally was used by Shakespeare in that fashion. If you’re going to say something so confidently, at least Google it first.