Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

Curious what's wrong with 'they'?


Yup. “They” has been accepted in major style guides and it’s what I use. It’s at times a bit limiting because there can be ambiguity for singular and plural but overall it’s pretty much a non-issue.


Imagine having a language with no issues cobbling together significant portions of vocabulary from at least 8 different languages, and then ending up with the same pronoun for plural and singular, in both the 2nd and 3rd persons...


Might as well go full way and adopt also we for both singular and plural.


Or imagine dropping "thou" and using "you" for both singular and plural. Crazy!


It's why we have y'all


In my area it's "youse".


Outrageous! How dare things keep evolving after I’m done evolving?


the pluralis majestatis is really a missed opportunity.


Because using one word for two different things can lead to confusion, and over time will simply lead to us creating a different word.

They, as you probably know, is 3rd person plural.

You might look up the history of thee, thou, and you. And then consider why y'all is taking the world by storm.

Sweden has "hen". I often use it while writing




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: