• woelkchen@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    As a non-native speaker, I really have a lot of problems using a plural word as singular. When I read it, I always have to read twice to check whether one or more people are meant. I rather read and use “she/he” even with the additional typing.

    • nantsuu@fedia.io
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      4 months ago

      Some people don’t identify as either of those. And there already is a common word that can be used for either singular or plural, which is “you.”

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        And English is imprecise for “you” as well. For he/she/it grammar at least doesn’t change. Substitute that pronoun for they and suddenly the grammar switches to plural. That totally confuses me.

        • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          “They” can quite happily function as singular. I asked my friend about this and they gave me their opinion. They told me that they use “they” or “them” to discuss people when their biological sex is unimportant or unknown. I would like to ask them more but they have to leave. They tell me that they’ll be back later.

          They (singular) say something. He/she/it says something. They (all) say something. You (all) say something. I say something. You (singular) say something. You’ll notice “he/she/it” seems to be the irregular outlier here. English is strange.

          • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            “He goes”. Correct.

            “She goes.” Correct.

            “It goes.” Correct.

            “They goes.” Wrong. And that’s just confusing for people who never ever were taught that in any form of education. I know it’s an old construct and not a new innovation but for people like me it feels just off. It’s not malice on my part to act against different genders, I’m just explaining why that part of the English language is weird

              • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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                4 months ago

                “I goes”. Incorrect “They goes”. Incorrect

                You don’t understand that one is first person singular and the other is not? Is your basic English really so much worse than mine?

            • sgnl@midwest.social
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              4 months ago

              It’s not wrong, it’s just generally offensive since colloquially “it” refers to objects rather than a individual.

              And as it follows, “it” is used as a insulting term when people want to dehumanize something.

              Also it’s “They go” and “I go”, perfectly serviceable for singular use.

          • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            Yeah without the singular they your English is bad. Sucks for non native speakers but it’s how our language works.

            • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works
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              4 months ago

              Yeah - that’s probably all true. Most people seem to cope with “you singular” and “you plural” in English but struggle with “they/them singular” and “they/them plural”. I’m not sure why.

    • iltg@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      you don’t understand the language and thus everyone should comply with you? i’d rather read correct english than what you find more understandable

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        You obviously understand English to a lesser degree than me. I nowhere wrote that I made demands to comply with me. Where on earth do you get that idea that offering a perspective is a demand?

        • iltg@sh.itjust.works
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          4 months ago

          then use “they”, do you speak exclusively with yourself? your linguistic choices affect others, just like others’ linguistic choices affect you (as you were noticing and complaining about)

          • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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            4 months ago

            then use “they”

            After 30 years of education saying otherwise it is not so easy.

            do you speak exclusively with yourself?

            I don’t speak English with others at all. I’m not in an English speaking country.

            your linguistic choices affect others

            Having a hard time grasping completely new concepts is not a choice.

      • Zoot@reddthat.com
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        4 months ago

        Is “He” not correct grammatically speaking?

        Let’s be real here, I’ve seen every post about Lady Bird and every time someone comes in to make a huge nothing burger about this PR. Yall are just a gigantic mob out for blood for absolutely no reason.

        Your concern should be whether or not the browser works, its not even finished ffs. If this were a released, absolutely 100% complete app, then sure! Go and be pessimistic about grammar. However I can garauntee you they have bigger obstacles to overcome.

    • alyth@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      “they” ist kein Pluralwort. “they” ist ein Pronomen der 3. Person Singular sowie der 3. Person Plural. Das ist genau so, wie “you” ein Pronomen der 2. Personal Singular und der 2. Person Plural ist.

      • woelkchen@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        “they” ist kein Pluralwort.

        And yet the grammar attached with its use is plural and that’s super weird. “They goes to the store” is just wrong.