I told you to use a dictionary because your replies haven't made sense in the context of arguing against me. Therefore, I assume that you lack the skill to properly understand English.
I don't know what kind of English teacher you had... But my teacher, in my country, says "they" is a correct alternative for she/he in spoken English. "It" AND "they" are however not currently acceptable in formal WRITING. Could be different somewhere else but these are the current English rules where I live. It's an unfortunate thing that we cannot use "they" in let's say, an essay. We also however cannot use "it" when referring to a person.
LOL I've been speaking writing and abusing English for over 4 decades I understand it fine sir.
BTW everyone... take a shot!!!
The words have defined meanings and using them doesn't make the grammar incorrect, implying that there is no reason to not allow their use.
That doesn't change that you failed to understand what I wrote.
Also, perhaps Malanu isn't at fault. Have you ever thought that maybe your misuse of the English language is actually at fault here? Then the misunderstanding would be because you're not being clear.
Not to be disrespectful Ludwig, but what are you trying to say? 'It' is as genderless as 'they' but is more often used to identify objects than beings... so I fail to see why you are splitting this hair.
It may be Arrogant or it could be the PC generation. I use he or she when I refer to a pet but if it's a bear in the wild & I don't know the gender I will use it. "They" is also gender neutral and can refer to individual or groups and is less... offensive.
Technically he's right about the usage of "they." It doesn't make sense to refer to a singular person as a plural "they" (that's kind of why it's again, not accepted in writing) So at least I can agree on that... xD
Neither of us stated that "they" should be used for singular.
Hey Lineaire, Thanks for the mediating. It's a nice change round here.
For the purposes of polite communication, referring to a human being as "it" is not acceptable. Dictionary definitions or not, calling a person an "it" is not polite or reasonable.
"They" as a third-person singular gender-neutral pronoun is considered acceptable grammatical usage these days because of the lack of such an epicene mot juste, despite attempts like shehe, O, and thon.
Now that we've tackled and settled these tangential concerns (they are indeed hereby settled, so don't keep arguing for the use of "it"), please stick to the topic - as humanely as possible.
My last English class was... 20ish years ago. I don't have a teacher to impress any more and in the real world, many of the grammar rules become unimportant.I didn't know I was. XD I hardly ever reply on debate threads so I just thought I'd change it up a bit... That and the "they" and "it" thing really reminded me of my last English class.
On a side note, English is a language that can change and evolve. So maybe one day my teacher will let me use "they" in my essays/homework to mean he/she. @_@ Either that or find a better alternative... Would make writing a lot easier haha.
Stop talking like we humans are so special, we are just another animal, and we refer to animals (atleast in english) as it, so why shouldn't we towards other humans, are we really that arrogant?