Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Miakoda (hellomiakoda@pdx.social)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 11:12:05 JST Miakoda

   I do wish they/them had a singular version. I know it's used for singular, both for NB and unknown gender. But it's awkward to my brain that demands I do my best at grammar.
   When it's plural... "They are coming along." "My friends are coming along. Makes sense."
   But singularly...
   "He is coming along." "They is coming along." oof
   "They are coming along" "He are coming along."
   Double oof.

   • Embed this notice
     Miakoda (hellomiakoda@pdx.social)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 11:23:17 JST Miakoda

     in reply to

     • ity

     @ity
     If we could all agree on "They is", I feel like I could get used to that.
     That seems less awkward and less a stretching of language rules than referring to 1 person followed by "are"

   • Embed this notice
     ity (ity@estradiol.city)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 11:23:18 JST ity

     in reply to

     @hellomiakoda Grammatically it's a plural but semantically it's singular :P That's why it's called "singular they". In English, a lot of things have to be inferred from context, and grammar is not necessarily reflective of semantics.

     You'd be utterly terrified at what folks do in our native language. They made "they" into an actual grammatical singular, so they use the equivalent of "they is"

   • Embed this notice
     Miakoda (hellomiakoda@pdx.social)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 11:33:44 JST Miakoda

     in reply to

     • ity

     @ity
     As someone wired to want black and white, the world is enfuriatingly miions of shades of gray. Language is especially gray, and I feel a very strong need to very carefully pick my words any time I talk (especially now that even autists misunderstood me as rude). I'm doomed.

   • Embed this notice
     ity (ity@estradiol.city)'s status on Sunday, 22-Dec-2024 11:33:45 JST ity

     in reply to

     @hellomiakoda Oh the fun part about it is that they mix and match plural and singular verbs and nouns :) We need to find a Czech enby to study the exact pattern because that is so incredibly fascinating for us

     We should say though, language's grammar is often very detached from its semantics - for us it was also weird when we learned English, but, language is fluid like this, it gets hot patches :P