Hit or myth: singular ‘they’ is wrong

What is ‘singular they‘? Singular they is the use of they, their or them (plural pronouns) with a singular antecedent (the word the they, their or them refers back to). And singular they is typically used to refer to a noun that could be either gender (such as client, person or student), or to an indefinite pronoun (anyone, someone, nobody, and so on).

The purported problem is that anyone, someone and nobody are singular, while they, their and them are plural, so the two parts of the sentence don’t agree. Yet it’s a useful construction that most people use naturally in everyday speech. Consider this example:

Everyone at Emphasis took great pride in keeping their desks neat.

Since everyone is technically singular (you say everyone is not everyone are), some folk would insist that the sentence is grammatically wrong. (In fact, it’s wrong because it’s a flagrant lie.) They might have you rewrite it like so:

Everyone at Emphasis took great pride in keeping his desk neat.

But what then do you deduce? No women work at Emphasis?

The quest for gender-neutrality

That’s the problem with using the masculine third-person singular pronouns he, him and his to stand in. Fans of doing so like to say that here he is generic and clearly denotes a person of either sex, but does anyone really read it that way?

Mind you, using only she is no less problematic (or, really, less sexist). And attempts to invent gender-free pronouns – for example e, thon, xe and ze – have never caught on (though does anyone else feel like they’ve seen them in an episode of Doctor Who?).

Other alternatives bring their own problems – alternating she and he is confusing and distracting, while he or she and s/he are ungainly and, as Fowler’s points out of the latter, unpronounceable.

Historical and literary precedence

Use of singular they is often seen as a relatively recent habit – a reaction to the rise of feminism in the 1970s and 80s. In fact, its use goes back even further than the move towards the generic he in the eighteenth century. Examples of singular they can be traced back to Middle English. It also has some pretty impressive allies, including Chaucer (‘And whoso fyndeth hym out of swich blame,/They wol come up’), Austen (‘I would have every body marry if they can do it properly’), and Shakespeare (‘And every one to rest themselves betake’).

An honorary plural

As the first example showed, they, their and them sit very naturally with indefinite pronouns such as everyone. The reason for this is that although such words are technically singular, they carry the sense of the plural ­– of multiple people. So there is, to quote Merriam-Webster’s Concise Dictionary of English Usage, ‘notional agreement’.

It’s worth noting, too, that we happily use you as both singular and plural. Once there was singular thou and plural you. After thou disappeared, you took its place as the singular second person pronoun – but kept its plural trappings (you say you are, even in the singular, not you is).

Verdict: Myth – with a caveat

It’s pretty clear that using they in this way is sensible and practical, and supported by history and logic.

However (and it pains us to say it), it’s worth being aware that there are still strong opponents to singular they and you don’t want to lose your reader because they’re busily fuming over your supposed grammatical error. Mignon Fogarty (otherwise known as Grammar Girl) makes the great point that if you’re writing for a particular company, it’s wise to check if they have a style guide that will clue you in to their view on this. If necessary, you could probably rephrase, use you (though this won’t always be appropriate) or one (though it’s peculiarly British and is increasingly seen as old-fashioned and stuffy).

But if you’re willing to stick to your guns (good on you) and are called upon to defend your choice, you could always reel off this article. Or ask them what they make of this example, inspired by Geoff Pullum: ‘After the working day is done, every member of Emphasis goes home and kicks off his brogues or stilettos.’ (See the problem? No one at Emphasis wears stilettos – not even the men.)

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Author: Catie Holdridge

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Catie joined Emphasis with an English literature and creative writing degree and a keen interest in what makes language work. Having researched, written, commissioned and edited dozens of articles for the Emphasis blog, she now knows more about the intricacies of effective professional writing than she ever thought possible.

She produced and co-wrote our online training programme, The Complete Business Writer, and these days oversees all the Emphasis marketing efforts. And she keeps office repartee at a suitably literary level.