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1. Embed this notice
   Tomasz Nurkiewicz 🇺🇦 (nurkiewicz@fosstodon.org)'s status on Thursday, 11-Jul-2024 21:22:30 JST Tomasz Nurkiewicz 🇺🇦

   There's burnout and there's this...

   • narcolepsy and alcoholism :flag: and :blobancap: :blobcattrans: :blobancap: :blobcattrans: :blobancap: :blobcattrans: like this.
   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 02:02:01 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • ~/phranck

     @nurkiewicz @phranck
     Good for them.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 02:12:43 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • ~/phranck

     @phranck
     Sorry, did the op specify the person’s gender?

   • Embed this notice
     ~/phranck (phranck@chaos.social)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 02:12:45 JST ~/phranck

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands @nurkiewicz "Them"?

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 02:17:39 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • ~/phranck

     @phranck Ah! Yeah, I can imagine that the singular genderless “they” isn’t something they teach in formal English language instruction, even though it’s common in everyday usage.

   • Embed this notice
     ~/phranck (phranck@chaos.social)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 02:17:40 JST ~/phranck

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands https://chaos.social/@phranck/112768978010293721

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 02:31:03 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • ~/phranck

     @phranck
     English is a wacky language! (Makes sense, since it’s 3 or 4 languages smashed together and left to stew.)

     Singular “they” is especially confusing because it’s under dispute; some people argue it’s incorrect. It’s similar to the alleged rule that one can’t end a sentence with a preposition — even though that’s (1) common and (2) a rule that one person made up because they thought English grammar should be more like Latin.

     Good guidance on “they:”
     https://style.mla.org/using-singular-they/

   • Embed this notice
     ~/phranck (phranck@chaos.social)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 02:31:04 JST ~/phranck

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands Now, for me, they/them makes sense regarding he/him and she/her. 🤦🏻♂️
     I didn't knew that.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 02:34:41 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • ~/phranck
     • em
     • Christian Stadelmann

     @genodeftest @jadedtwin @phranck @nurkiewicz
     “They” uses plural verb forms, if that’s what you’re asking.

     Just posted this helpful guide in another branch of the thread: https://style.mla.org/using-singular-they/

     We’re in a bit of a pickle here because singular “they” has been acceptable in vernacular English for centuries, but was discouraged in formal written English throughout much of the 20th century. Now we’re renegotiating the formal rules.

   • Embed this notice
     Christian Stadelmann (genodeftest@digitalcourage.social)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 02:34:43 JST Christian Stadelmann

     in reply to

     • ~/phranck
     • Paul Cantrell
     • em

     @jadedtwin @phranck @inthehands @nurkiewicz Thanks for your explanation!

     Is *they*/*them* used as singular also in regards to grammar? I think I have only seen it refer to a single person but using a plural form of verbs, i.e., the only way I knew it was referring to a single person was because of the context.

   • Embed this notice
     em (jadedtwin@corteximplant.com)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 02:34:44 JST em

     in reply to

     • ~/phranck
     • Paul Cantrell

     @phranck @inthehands @nurkiewicz at no point is this person's gender mentioned. Them is a placeholder for that and if you natively speak english I can guarantee that you've done this without thinking about it.

     Additionally, they/them was originally a singular pronoun and was used as such even in Shakespeare's plays. Stop trying to high road people about a grammatical feature that has been part of english for more than 400 years.

     Source: I'm literally a linguist. This was my job.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 04:46:22 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • ~/phranck
     • Sven A. Schmidt

     @finestructure @phranck
     There’s a classic Calvin and Hobbes about this: https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes/2014/02/26#.UxHmP_0mbnc

     We have very much the same struggles in English when pronouns enter the picture — but at least it’s only pronouns and not all nouns!

   • Embed this notice
     Sven A. Schmidt (finestructure@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 04:46:23 JST Sven A. Schmidt

     in reply to

     • ~/phranck
     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands @phranck There’s also that since German is a “gendered” language we grow up thinking of literally everything having a gender. House, car, tree etc. We even assign (and sometimes disagree about 😆) gender for English words used in German. Classic: die Email.

     It’s a hard thing to unlearn. When we see “teacher” we tend to think of a male person, because -er is the male suffix in German.

     They/them is beautiful and so much simpler than our workarounds dealing with this in German.

   • Embed this notice
     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 05:04:12 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • ~/phranck
     • Sven A. Schmidt

     @finestructure @phranck
     If you are a sucker for languages, you might enjoy this daily Wordle-like game:
     https://lingule.xyz/

     The UI is glitchy, but it’s a lot of fun if you bear with it. Don’t neglect clicking the arrow to get a map. (I lost myself use the full research power of the web, just not to look up the word itself or copy and paste characters from its writing system.)

   • Embed this notice
     Sven A. Schmidt (finestructure@mastodon.social)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 05:04:13 JST Sven A. Schmidt

     in reply to

     • ~/phranck
     • Paul Cantrell

     @inthehands @phranck ❤️ Calvin & Hobbes.

     What messes with me learning French is that while English pronouns agree with the subject, in French they agree with the object.

     German is the killer though, because it does both 🤪 Glad I didn’t have to learn •that• as a foreign language.

     I love the complexities of and differences between languages.

   • Embed this notice
     :blobancap: :blobcattrans: :blobancap: :blobcattrans: :blobancap: :blobcattrans: (allison@hidamari.apartments)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 05:41:37 JST :blobancap: :blobcattrans: :blobancap: :blobcattrans: :blobancap: :blobcattrans:

     in reply to
     @nurkiewicz I think I might actually know who this gentleman is, small world
   • Embed this notice
     djsumdog (djsumdog@djsumdog.com)'s status on Friday, 12-Jul-2024 05:45:49 JST djsumdog

     in reply to
     good exit strategy