Singular they

"Singular they" refers to the use in English of the third person plural pronoun they to refer to a singular person of indeterminate gender. Many attack this usage as an abberation introduced for reasons of politicial correctness, however singular they has a long history, going back centuries. Several famous authors have used it in their writing, including Jane Austen.

Singular they is used to attempt to remedy the deficiencies of English pronouns. English has he and she as third person singular pronouns, but it lacks a pronoun which does not imply gender. Traditionally he has been used to refer to a person of either gender, but today such use is widely frowned upon as excluding women. He or she can be used, but this is a rather torturous expression. English also has the singular neuter pronoun it, but this pronoun is only used for inanimate objects, or sometimes animals or newborn infants; its use to refer to humans sounds rather jarring.

Note that while singular they is semantically singular, it is syntactically plural; thus the singular they takes plural verb forms. While this may seem odd, it is no different from the use of you, which always takes a plural verb form, whether one is addressing one or several persons.

The singular they can only be used to refer to an indeterminate person; it cannot generally be used to refer to a person identified as a particular unique individual, even if that person's gender is unknown.