document updated 12 years ago, on Jun 24, 2011
- TODO: 19th century grammarians suggested that singular-they was incorrect... what were their specific criticisms of it? Were there any inconsistencies/flaws? Things unrelated to my concerns about gender?
- TODO: even when using it in the singular, I and my friends seem to use it in a very odd way:
- example:
He walks his dog.
She walks her dog.
They walk their dog.
You walk your dog.
That is, we still use the plural form of the verb, even though we're asserting that the subject is singular. This violates subject-verb agreement.
- possible references on Wikipedia:
[1]
[2]