• diprount_tomato
    link
    fedilink
    22 years ago

    Aren’t those cases referring to individuals you don’t know the gender of? Like “I saw a silhouette moving, they were going somewhere”

    • Flying Squid
      link
      fedilink
      122 years ago

      'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, since nature makes them partial, should o’erhear the speech.

      • Hamlet, Act III, Scene 3

      There’s not a man I meet but doth salute me As if I were their well-acquainted friend

      • The Comedy of Errors, Act IV, Scene 3

      Sounds like the gender was known.

      • diprount_tomato
        link
        fedilink
        22 years ago

        First one is plural, second one is refering to what I said in my previous comment

        • Flying Squid
          link
          fedilink
          142 years ago

          No, both are the use of the singular ‘they’ with gender. Read them more closely.

          • diprount_tomato
            link
            fedilink
            22 years ago

            First one talks about mothers in general, second one refers to being a friend of someone

    • Chozo
      link
      fedilink
      5
      edit-2
      2 years ago

      Yes, which is literally why many nonbinary people prefer “they” for their third person pronouns.