• Soup@lemmy.world
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      3 days ago

      Oh, to be there when you say “they” haha

      Or to watch you struggle to force yourself to say he/she so I “lose”.

      It’s ok, we’ve only been doing it for hundreds of years; it’s just a passing fad, right?

        • Soup@lemmy.world
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          2 days ago

          Oh, go on then, explain it. I’d love to hear the nuanced differences between these two uses of 3rd person singular “they” for when he or she are not possible to use.

            • Soup@lemmy.world
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              2 days ago

              You so very very much did not. The only difference is that you simply don’t want to make a non-binary person comfortable.

              There is absolutely no rule in the English language that states that if you know someone’s biological sex(of which there are more than two but let’s keep it simple) you must use the corresponding he/him/his or she/her/hers pronouns for them. You can 100% use “they” in reference to your own damn mother if you wanted to, it’s all above board.

              So, please, explain the difference between the two things you mentioned before. I’m simply dying to hear what you have to say.

                • Soup@lemmy.world
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                  2 days ago

                  But explain how this is different in an actual grammatical sense.

                  Yes, it is incredibly minorly different in how it feels and guess what, it gets easier if you stop moaning about it and just lean into it. I simply refer to most people as “they” now and it both hasn’t caused any communication breakdowns and it’s made it super easy to not slip-up. Barely any mistakes these days, and it really didn’t take that long.

                  You’re making such a big deal out of it and for what?