this post was submitted on 30 Aug 2023
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Exactly, it's painful because I want to be respectful and use a more neutral pronoun but none of the ones people created really feels natural to pronounce and it's always awkward when someone tries to use them in conversation. Now the they/them in English rolls off the tongue and I use it all the time without realizing.
My current strategy is to address someone by whatever pronouns I think is correct and if they correct me then I just ask for forgiveness and use the one they prefer
My strategy is to look grumpy and hope no one talks to me.
It was my strategy before pronouns became a thing and it suited me fine then, it suits me fine now
No, it doesn't. It's really awkward.
Canada has a player on the women's national soccer (football) team who wants people to use they/them pronouns when referring to them in the third person. It leads to trying to create sentences like "they've been playing well today but they haven't".
And it would be impossible to replace one of those pronouns with "the team" or the player's name. Completely impossible.
I feel like when you say that out loud it's actually very easy to understand due to intonation.
They (singular) has been used since at least Shakespeare, so every single student in an English-speaking country has learned how to use it correctly; including how to format sentences using singular they. 'The firefighter rescued a puppy from a burning building; they were really lucky they spotted the puppy in time.' In any sentence where two pronouns are the same, you'd replace one or the other (preferably the latter though the 'rules' on this are stupidly complex). Alex was drinking Jim's coffee. He should really buy ~~him~~Jim a replacement.