The "singular they" should not be used
Why the use of the "singular they" is neither historically supported nor grammatically acceptable
Introduction
In elementary school, students begin to learn about the parts of the English language. When you pass these grades, you are knowledgeable about these components. The components of the English language define how we use words in sentences, and how listeners determine, from our speech, what we mean. Using grammar correctly is important as it facilitates communication. The English language is a shared communication tool between all speakers.
Today, all kinds of incorrect statements are made about pronouns. I am a native speaker of the English language, and thus I know the language in the most appropriate way. In this brief essay, I will explain why the “singular they” is incorrect, creates confusion, and has no historical antecedents to cosset those who would mutilate the English language. I will explain why the purported antecedents are not appropriate, and I will give you, O Gentle Reader, the armamentarium to counter the Forces of Darkness who are attempting to modify your language use.
Here’s an example of the “singular they”:
On Friday, Janelle Monáe came out as non-binary, retweeting a post which read: “There is absolutely nothing better than living outside the gender binary.”
Monáe’s tweet came after the recent announcement of Sam Smith, who recently said they felt “just as much a woman as I am man”. Both celebrities joined the increasing number of young people who identify neither as male or female.
In the article, an example is given:
“You are going to meet my friend Poppy today, I hope you like them”
In the case of these “famous” people (I have heard of neither myself), they wish you to say things like “Sam Smith wears a big hat to make themselves look less corpulent” and “Janelle Monáe has come to their senses”. They attempt, as many others do, to justify this mutilation of language by a vague handwaving to “historical precedence”, as well as the current fashionable idea that they are “non-binary”. Does such precedence exist? Is it important what you believe yourself to be for others to choose the pronoun to use when referring to you?
To examine this claim, it’s important to begin remembering what the language uses as “noun” and “pronoun”. In addition, a reminder about the proper selection of noun-pronoun pairs is important.
What is a “noun”?
From the Miriam-Webster Dictionary:
A noun is a word that refers to a thing (book), a person (Noah Webster), an animal (cat), a place (Omaha), a quality (softness), an idea (justice), or an action (yodeling). It's usually a single word, but not always: cake, shoes, school bus, and time and a half are all nouns.
What kinds of nouns are there?
There are multiple types of nouns. From the same reference (condensed from the text):
Common (book), proper (Bible), collective (class, group)
In particular, proper nouns are those which refer to specific persons, places, things, ideas, or times. They are capitalized. Common nouns (book, bicycle) refer to objects which are not special. Collective nouns (group, team) refer to collections of individual things. Some collective nouns (corporation) sometimes refer to multiple persons in the group (making it a plural noun) or to the group as a whole (making it a singular noun). The difference is defined by the sentence context.
What is a “pronoun”?
From the Miriam-Webster dictionary:
any of a small set of words (such as I, she, he, you, it, we, or they) in a language that are used as substitutes for nouns or noun phrases and whose referents are named or understood in the context
Pronouns vary by “person” (1st: I, we; 2nd: you; 3rd: he, she, they), and number of items in the reference set (singular, plural). They differ by subject (I, she), object (me, her), or possessive (mine, hers). They fall into classes (condensed from the text):
Personal: person(s) being referred to
Interrogative (what, which, who, whom, whose): introduce questions for which a noun is the answer, as in "Which do you prefer?"
Possessive (mine, yours, his, hers, its, ours, theirs): things or people that belong to someone
Indefinite (everybody, either, none, something): do not refer to a specific person or thing, and typically refer to an unidentified or unfamiliar person(s) or thing(s)
In particular, the indefinite pronouns are important for this essay.
What are the traditional rules for pronouns?
Pronouns are used to replace nouns. In the use of the pronoun, it’s important that the reference for the pronoun (the person or thing being replaced) be clear. This is termed “pronoun referencing” or So, we may say:
1) Jim went to the store. He bought bread.
In S1, the reference for “he” is “Jim” and this is clear. However, if we say:
2) Jim and Fred went to the store. He bought bread.
In S2, the reference is not clear for “he”. The sentence should be reconsidered. If the sentence is:
3) Jim and Jane went to the store. He bought bread.
In S3, the reference for “he” is now clear, as Jim is male, Jane is female, and “he” refers to a male. If the sentence is:
4) Jim and Fred went to the store. They bought bread.
In S4, the reference is clear; both were involved in the purchase.
Traditionally, if the person is not known, the correct pronoun is the masculine:
5) Someone left his book here, but he will probably come back later.
When a pronoun for a singular noun is used, the pronoun is singular. So, if “Jim” is the noun, the pronoun is “he”, as Jim is a single person who is male. If there are two nouns such as “Jim and Fred”, the pronoun is “they”, as there are 2 persons, and “they” is the plural pronoun.
The “default masculine” pronoun
The use of the “masculine pronoun” is the traditional default approach used when the sex of the person is unknown. So, an example is:
6) Someone left his wallet on the table.
It’s not actually clear that the wallet was left by a male, as male and female persons use wallets. But the masculine is the default in this case.
In the 1960s, the burgeoning feminist movement became interested in removing the assumption of masculinity. So, a “gender-neutral” pronoun was sought, and some believe that this interest has been found in many areas of journalism since the 1800s. No “gender-neutral” pronoun has caught on, so many went on to use “they” as a “gender-neutral” pronoun. It certainly is gender-neutral, but it is also plural. By choosing to solve one problem, another was created.
The “singular they”
Recently, many have contended that the plural pronoun “they” for can be used for a single person. Or, more accurately, Person X is requesting that others use “they” in the 3rd person to refer to Person X, rather than “he” or “she”. This use of the “singular they” began in the late 1990s, but has become far more common since 2000. What is requested by the “singular they preferred pronoun” choice is something like:
7) Phillip is genderqueer, and they use pronouns differently
This has no support in English literature, and is entirely new, as well as entirely unacceptable. This sentence has a proper noun as the subject, and uses the “plural” pronoun. The proper noun is that of a single person, with a sex. Thus, the sentence is a malformed and incorrect one. This type of sentence will be called “proper noun-singular they” (PNST).
There are similar sentences which resemble S6, but are different:
8) Someone is genderqueer, and they use pronouns differently.
In S7, “someone” is an pronoun, not a noun. It is “indefinite”, in that it refers not to a specific person, but to an unknown person or persons. In fact, “someone” could refer to multiple persons. This type of sentence will be called “indefinite pronoun-singular they” (IPST).
Other indefinite pronouns include “somebody”, “nobody”, “no one”, “anyone”, “anybody”, “everyone”, and “everybody”. Sentences formed with the indefinite pronoun should take the “default he”, but of recent have taken the plural “they” as the pronoun. Note that the indefinite pronoun is not singular, nor is it plural. It is indefinite, and can refer to several persons, to one person, or to no persons.
Examples:
9) Everyone went to the store to get their drinks. Jim got wine, Fred got beer.
10) Everybody went to the store to get his drink. Jim got wine, Fred got beer.
11) Anyone could to the store to get their drinks. Jim got wine, Fred got beer.
12) Anybody could to the store to get his drink. Jim got wine, Fred got beer.
13) No one went to the store, since they all had wine already.
14) Nobody went to the store, since he had stopped drinking wine.
15) Someone went to the store, since they (all) needed wine.
16) Somebody went to the store, since he had stopped drinking wine.
17) A person could go to the store, and get his wine.
18) A person could go to the store, and get their wine.
Every[one][body]: Here, in S8, “everyone” acts as a collective noun, and the “plural pronoun” make grammatical sense. Note that the construction in S9 also makes grammatical sense, although seems just a little off. Here in S9, “everyone” is acting more like a reference to “a member of the party”.
Any[one][body]: S10 and S11 follow similar thinking, and both seem again correct. The pronoun can be singular or plural. The indefinite pronoun is basically not singular or plural in character.
No[one][body]: S12 makes sense, as “no one” is often a collective indefinite pronoun. S13 is awkward and seems very odd, as “no one” is far more likely to be a plural or collective pronoun.
Some[one][body]: The pronoun “someone”/”somebody”, on the other hand, is much more likely to indicate a single individual; “somebody went and they all returned” seems to indicate more than 1 person, while “somebody went and they returned” sounds a bit more like a reference to a single person.
These pronouns are indefinite. They can represent single persons or multiple persons. Thus, the pronoun to refer to the pronoun can be either plural or singular. The use of the “plural pronoun” to refer to ANOTHER plural pronoun is not an example of the “singular they”. Rather, it is a demonstration that those who use it as an example of the “singular they” are not well-educated in grammar, semantics, nor syntax of the English language.
The “singular they” in literature
So there is a clear difference between 2 types of “singular they”, the PNST and the IPST. They are sometimes treated as completely interchangeable by the “forced-teamed” approach:
In English grammar, singular "they" is the use of the pronoun they, them, or their to refer to a singular noun or to certain indefinite pronouns (such as anybody or everyone).
No distinction is made between the “singular noun” and the “indefinite pronoun”, although there is (as shown above) quite different senses in which they function semantically. The IPST is actually, in many cases, not a singular pronoun. This is called “forced teaming” because 2 things which are actually different are made to seem equivalent by putting them together:
19) Cults and religions are pathological organizations.
S18 combines 2 types of groups that are not the same, but forces an equivalence.
The phrase “examples singular they” was used to search the Internet using Google. Examples of “traditional use of the singular they” were collected.
A. “Everyone Uses Singular 'They,' Whether They Realize It Or Not”: Several IPST examples, 1 PNST example (constructed by the author)
So, every example that was found in discussions of the “singular they” does not involve a “PNST case”. Rather, every example which is recognized as “grammatically acceptable” are IPST examples. No examples in history or literature show a PNST (Fred, Sir Winston Churchill) with the plural pronoun:
Sir Winston Churchill ate a big piece of pie. They prefer quince.
This sentence is grammatically incorrect. This is an example of PNST construction. Not only is it grammatically incorrect, confusing, and awkward, but there is no historical precedence.
Even persons who occasionally use “the royal ‘we’” use singular pronouns. So, for Queen Elizabeth:
“Horses were one of Queen Elizabeth's true passions. The British monarch received her first riding lesson at age three, was given her first pony when she turned four, and throughout the years, she has often been spotted riding in Windsor Park.”
No “singular they” there – the correct pronoun “she” is used.
No examples in literature, and no examples in discussions of the “singular they”, can be found which follow the PNST pattern:
20) Fred had a sandwich. They eat quickly.
21) Fred had a sandwich. He eats quickly.
22) Fred had a sandwich. Fred eat quickly.
23) Fred had a sandwich. Fred eats quickly.
S19 is the PNST, and is awkward and incorrect. Fred is a single person. S20 is a correct pronoun use. S21 substitutes “Fred” for “they” in S19, and is clearly malformed with an incorrect form of the verb “eat”. S22 shows a correct substitution. S20 and S22 are correct, S19 and S21 are grammatically incorrect.
This malformed PNST usage is only found in the last 20 years, and specifically it is more common in the last 10 years. Thus, this is not a traditional use of the “singular they”. It is, rather, a modern artifact constructed as part of the “culture wars”.
Why the “proper-noun-singular they” should not be used
There are multiple reasons why the PNST should not be used, and the requests of those who call for others to use it should not be accommodated.
Compelled speech: When one person requests something from another, and does this with coercion, this is “compelled speech”. While some persons can compel others to speak in certain ways (parents can compel children, employers can compel employees), compelled speech is generally not allowed or favored. Under the 1st Amendment to the US Constitution, the US government may not compel speech of US citizens. Others should not compel speech because it is rude and patronizing. Speech can be compelled in other ways as well. In particular, social media can be part of compelled speech.
Pronouns and names are different: Each person owns his own name. If a person wishes to use his given name, or a nickname, it is considered good manners to accept that choice. The pronoun, however, is not the same; no one owns pronouns. Pronouns are shared between all persons of the male sex or the female sex. No person can, by their own choice, modify the English language (with the exception of the invention of new words, which is often done by specific individuals).
Pronoun use: When a person says “my pronouns are ‘he’/’they’”, what they actually mean is “The pronouns that I wish others to use to refer to me are ‘he’/’they’”. No one speaks of himself in the 3rd person. The “preferred pronoun” is actually the “pronoun that others must use in referring to me”. And there are consequences for the “mis-gendering” pronoun use. Persons can be fired, or referred to HR, or have other consequences which have a long-term impact on career and general mental health.
Monitoring: When someone issues a “preferred pronoun” declaration, the pronoun will often not be used in the presence of that person. Thus, persons who refer to others with the “wrong pronoun” can be called out. The term “pro-narc” should be used for this. In the reference linked, actor Matt Smith is a “voluntary pronoun cop” or “pro-narc” in correcting the failure of some reporter to not use the PNST use by actor Emma D’Arcy.
Referencing: When a pronoun is used, the “reference” for the pronoun must be clear. If the “pronoun reference” is not clear, confusion will result. In many cases, sex differentiates the references:
24) Jack and Jill went up the hill. She came down at 4. He tarried ‘til 8 with Emma.
In this case, the references are clear, since Jack is male and Jill is female.
If, on the other hand, Jack uses the PNST, we have:
25) Jack and Jill went up the hill. She came down at 4. They tarried ‘til 8 with Emma.
This is completely confusing and incoherent. If Jill also uses the PNST, we have:
26) Jack and Jill went up the hill. They came down at 4. They tarried ‘til 8 with Emma.
This has clearly gone from bad to worse. The PNST makes normal communication with pronouns a tangled mess. It is also important to remember that others must be informed of the preference for the PNST by persons. If these others do not know, the confusion can produce a possibly serious confusion:
27) Fred said “Jack and Jill went up the hill. They came down at 4.” When this was relayed to the sheriff, he called off the search for Jack. Jack’s body was found the next day. Fred was charged with deliberate interference with a police action.
Singular they as vanity: The use of the “singular they”, and in particular the PNST, is at the forefront of the culture wars. In particular, prominent actors who need to promote their careers to the young and Woke are fond of making the pronouncement of the use of the PNST. No one has the responsibility of cossetting the peculiar interests of the actor persons in our society. Thus, the announcement should be treated as any other vulgar utterance of actor persons and ignored by persons of good breeding and better grammar. Other persons who are “non-binary” are following in the lead of the prominent persons in this vanity. If you don’t want to further the vanity aims of these persons, you should not participate in the use of the “singular they”. In recent cases, persons have had consequences for using a pronoun incorrectly that others have requested, so not participating in “pronoun games” can have consequences. Hopefully, as SCOTUS reviews these, the consequences will be less dire.
Conclusion
The use of the “singular they” as a pronoun for a specific individual is a new development in the English language. The acronym PNST is used here. It is a consequence of the lack of a sex-neutral pronoun group, which refers to persons (using “it” for a person has a high contempt factor). There is no reason to use the “singular they” in this way. Those who do not choose to participate should not be forced to do so.