Singular "they" on Facebook

Michael Everson everson at EVERTYPE.COM
Thu Aug 22 09:18:00 UTC 2013


On 10 Aug 2013, at 12:19, Dave Wilton <dave at WILTON.NET> wrote:

> I've noticed that Facebook, and probably other social media applications,
> uses the singular "they" when the person's sex has not been indicated. As in
> "Jane Doe changed their profile picture." The software will use "his" or
> "her" when the person has indicated their sex in the profile. If one does
> not do so, then it uses "they."
>
> Just another example of the usage spreading.

I wish thay would make a spelling distinction between singular "thay, thair, tham" and plural "they, their, them".

Sigh.

Michael Everson

Noting that Sweden recently introduced a neutral pronoun "hän" in addition to "han" m. and "hon" f.

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