Singular they

The galley: six centuries in slugs

Most of the history below comes from Dennis Baron’s essay “A brief history of singular ‘they’”, published on his University of Illinois blog The Web of Language in July 2018, which draws on the Oxford English Dictionary.

1. 1375

   The earliest example the Oxford English Dictionary records, in the medieval romance William and the Werewolf, where they refers to an unnamed person. Baron adds that forms may exist in speech long before they are written down, so singular they was likely common earlier still.

2. Writers

   The American Dialect Society notes that singular they appears in the work of Chaucer, Shakespeare and Jane Austen.

3. 1600s

   A parallel change. You, once plural (and a polite singular), began appearing in all contexts in the seventeenth century, replacing thou, thee and thy. It met resistance too.

4. 1700s

   Grammarians began warning that singular they was an error, on the grounds that a plural pronoun can’t take a singular antecedent.

5. 1794

   In a newspaper exchange Baron describes, three women writers, corrected for using singular they, replied that they had used it on purpose because “we wished to conceal the gender”.

6. 1996

   R. W. Burchfield’s The New Fowler’s Modern English Usage dismisses objections to singular they as unsupported by the historical record, and calls the trend “irreversible”.

7. 1998

   The New Oxford Dictionary of English accepts singular they and uses it in its own definitions.

8. 2010

   The third edition of the New Oxford American Dictionary calls singular they “generally accepted” with indefinites such as everyone, and “now common but less widely accepted” with definite nouns, especially in formal contexts.

9. 2015

   The American Dialect Society votes they, used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun, its Word of the Year for 2015 (at a vote held in January 2016), recognising its emerging use to refer to a known person, often by someone who rejects the traditional gender binary of he and she. In 2015, the society notes, the Washington Post style guide took it up.

Two shifts run through that list. The first is old: they for a person whose gender is unknown or beside the point (“Everyone loves their mother”, in Baron’s example). The second is newer: they for a particular, known person who uses it, the sense the American Dialect Society singled out as its Word of the Year for 2015.

What the Style Manual says now

The Australian Government Style Manual says you can use they or them where you would otherwise use he, she, him or her. Its page on pronouns sets out the full set: they for he or she, them for him or her, their for his or hers.

It also notes the history: using gender-neutral pronouns for a person of unknown gender has a long history, and usage now covers people who don’t wish to identify as a particular gender, or who identify as non-binary or gender-fluid.

The Manual’s position has moved over time, and it says so. Its notes record that the sixth edition gave options for avoiding gender-specific pronouns and observed that singular they had acquired a “special value” in inclusive language; the current digital edition goes further and suggests singular they as a gender-neutral pronoun.

They are, not they is

Singular they keeps its plural verb. The Style Manual says that when singular they is used as a gender-neutral term, it takes the plural form of the verb.

Themself or themselves?

Both appear in the Style Manual. It lists themself among the reflexive pronouns, gives the example “The manager emailed themself”, and says you can use themselves or themself instead of himself or herself, describing themself as an extension of using they for a single person.

Not every reader is comfortable with it yet. The Oxford Learner’s Dictionary notes that some people prefer he or she, especially to avoid saying themself, which many people think is not correct. The same entry calls it now generally acceptable to use they, them and their to refer to a singular noun, and records their use for a person who chooses not to be identified as either male or female.

Other ways round a gendered pronoun

Singular they is one option. The Style Manual gives three more, each with an example:

Where a person has said which pronouns they use, the Style Manual’s first instruction applies: learn the person’s pronoun. For more on writing about people, see the drawer on pronouns and inclusive language.