Comment on don't use ladybird browser lol
Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago“They” can quite happily function as singular. I asked my friend about this and they gave me their opinion. They told me that they use “they” or “them” to discuss people when their biological sex is unimportant or unknown. I would like to ask them more but they have to leave. They tell me that they’ll be back later.
They (singular) say something. He/she/it says something. They (all) say something. You (all) say something. I say something. You (singular) say something. You’ll notice “he/she/it” seems to be the irregular outlier here. English is strange.
“He goes”. Correct.
“She goes.” Correct.
“It goes.” Correct.
“They goes.” Wrong. And that’s just confusing for people who never ever were taught that in any form of education. I know it’s an old construct and not a new innovation but for people like me it feels just off. It’s not malice on my part to act against different genders, I’m just explaining why that part of the English language is weird
It’s not wrong, it’s just generally offensive since colloquially “it” refers to objects rather than a individual.
And as it follows, “it” is used as a insulting term when people want to dehumanize something.
“I goes”. Incorrect “They goes”. Incorrect
“I goes”. Incorrect “They goes”. Incorrect
You don’t understand that one is first person singular and the other is not? Is your basic English really so much worse than mine?
First person singular and third person singular. Both singular.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 4 months ago
Yeah without the singular they your English is bad. Sucks for non native speakers but it’s how our language works.
Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 4 months ago
Yeah - that’s probably all true. Most people seem to cope with “you singular” and “you plural” in English but struggle with “they/them singular” and “they/them plural”. I’m not sure why.