• diprount_tomato
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    -118 months ago

    Aren’t those cases referring to individuals you don’t know the gender of? Like “I saw a silhouette moving, they were going somewhere”

    • Flying Squid
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      138 months ago

      'Tis meet that some more audience than a mother, since nature makes them partial, should o’erhear the speech.

      • Hamlet, Act III, Scene 3

      There’s not a man I meet but doth salute me As if I were their well-acquainted friend

      • The Comedy of Errors, Act IV, Scene 3

      Sounds like the gender was known.

      • diprount_tomato
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        -128 months ago

        First one is plural, second one is refering to what I said in my previous comment

        • Flying Squid
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          168 months ago

          No, both are the use of the singular ‘they’ with gender. Read them more closely.

          • diprount_tomato
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            -38 months ago

            First one talks about mothers in general, second one refers to being a friend of someone

    • Chozo
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      fedilink
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      edit-2
      8 months ago

      Yes, which is literally why many nonbinary people prefer “they” for their third person pronouns.

      • diprount_tomato
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        -78 months ago

        It’s still not used for the same grammatical reasons