Singular They Debate

Discussions focus on the grammatical correctness and implications of using singular 'they' versus first-person 'I' or 'we', including debates over impersonal 'you', royal 'we', and pronoun shifts in writing or statements.

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3,177
Comments
20
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5
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#3001
Topic ID

Activity Over Time

2007
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2009
67
2010
118
2011
116
2012
92
2013
188
2014
154
2015
154
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153
2017
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2018
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2021
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2022
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2026
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Keywords

e.g ETA IBM SpeakerText GP youtube.com SE wikipedia.org singular plural grammar person royal native speakers wife multiple people didn mean english

Sample Comments

eviks Feb 18, 2025 View on HN

Yes, you are missing the non-personalized meaning of "you"

chinabot Jul 12, 2022 View on HN

Using the word We, when they actually mean You

dvdhsu May 23, 2011 View on HN

"they're" refers to a party in third person, while it should refer to "us" which is in first person.

sojournerc Aug 23, 2025 View on HN

"here", yet you say "they"... What's that about?

needz May 18, 2018 View on HN

Sorry, I was using the 'singular' they.

jarek Apr 10, 2013 View on HN

This is a case where singular they would have come in handy...

wtetzner Jul 19, 2016 View on HN

Yes, I didn't mean to suggest you do :)I was using the singular they: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

rymate1234 Nov 22, 2021 View on HN

And "they" can be used for one person though

suyash Mar 20, 2015 View on HN

How can it be 2 different people, why don't you speak in 1st person and use 'I'?

Xiol32 Mar 14, 2025 View on HN

Interesting that you chose "they" instead of "we".