They (IPA: /ðeɪ/) is a third-person, personal pronoun (subject case) in Modern English.
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | Object | Reflexive | Subject | Object | Reflexive | ||
| First | I | me | myself | we | us | ourselves | |
| Second | you | you | yourself | you | you | yourselves | |
| Third | Masculine | he | him | himself | they | them | themselves |
| Feminine | she | her | herself | ||||
| Neuter | it | it | itself | ||||
Contents |
The "singular" they is the use of this pronoun, where they is used as a gender-neutral singular rather than plural pronoun. The correctness of this usage is disputed.
| Singular | Plural | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | Object | Possessive | Subject | Object | Possessive | ||
| First | I | me | mi(n) | we | us | ure | |
| Second | thou | thee | thy | ye | you | your | |
| Third | Impersonal | hit | it/him | his | he they |
hem them |
hir their |
| Masculine | he | him | his | ||||
| Feminine | sche | hire | hir | ||||
Taken from "You know what "they" say..."
The logical position against this usage is based on the principle of methodological individualism - the obvious fact about the reality of humans that various actions such as "thinking", "saying", "feeling", "knowing", "believing" or any other physiological functions can only be done by individual humans.
|
||||||||