Hey, and welcome back to Speak English with Christina!
Today, I have big news for you, something surprising. You ready?
In English… “they” is a singular pronoun.
Yep. You can use “they” as both a plural and a singular pronoun. Whaaaat?
I know, it’s surprising! Maybe even shocking.
But if anyone has questions, they can ask in the comments.
Did you see what I did there?
There’s a pronoun in that sentence: “They”.
We’re going to talk about grammar today, so let’s start with a quick reminder.
WHAT’S A PRONOUN?
A pronoun is a word we use to avoid repeating the same noun several times.
It sounds heavy to say “I saw Jay yesterday, but Jay didn’t say anything about having dinner with Jay and Vicki.”
So we use pronouns: I saw Jay yesterday, but HE didn’t say anything about having dinner with HIM and Vicki.”
We have subject pronouns: I, you, he, she, it, we, they.
And object pronouns: me, you, him, her, it, us, them.
You probably know that “they” and “them” are plural, but they’re also…singular.
THE SINGULAR PRONOUN THEY & THEM
Look at these examples. They use the singular “they”, the subject pronoun.
- “Nobody wants to make mistakes in English. If THEY study & practice regularly, they’ll make fewer mistakes!”
- “Everyone wants to speak fluent English, but THEY don’t have to be perfect to be fluent.”
OK, maybe not everyone, but a lot of people.
These examples use the singular them, the object pronoun:
- “If someone made a mistake, you should tell THEM politely.”
- “Do you have a friend who wants to learn English? Then please share this lesson with THEM!”
Why do we use “they” and “them” in these examples? Because it’s English, and English has weird rules.
No, that’s not the real reason. We use “they” and “them” as singular pronouns because it’s the gender-neutral singular pronoun.
He & him is obviously masculine. She & her is feminine. And they & them is gender-neutral.
Here’s a good example of why this neutral singular pronoun is useful. We could say “If anyone has a question, he or she should ask his or her teacher.” Ugh, that’s long and complicated.
But if we use the singular they & them:
“If anyone has a question, THEY should ask THEIR teacher to can help THEM understand.”
Short, simple. Like English grammar magic!
Maybe this is a totally new aspect of English grammar, so here’s a recap:
WHEN TO USE THE SINGULAR PRONOUN THEY & THEM
Now how do you know when you can use the singular they & them?
There are some key words that tell you. For example:
Watch the video lesson, and I’ll explain all of this to you:
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Did you know of this grammar rule before you watched this video? Do you want to try it?
Write some examples in the comments below so you can practice.
We’re all friends here, so don’t worry if you make mistakes. That’s how you learn.
And if anybody has any questions, they can ask in the comments 😉
Have fun,
Christina
P.S.
Thanks so much for being part of the Speak English Community.
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Everyone want to go in Scotland should take with them a camera.
Anybody eat “saucisson” said it’s better they were thinking.
Good examples for “they”! And to correct the grammar of the sentences, they would be “Everyone who goes to Scotland should take a camera with them” and “Everybody who ate “saucisson” said it’s better than they had imagined.” Good examples!
Hi Christina,
Thanks for your answer and your correction, it’s a pleasure to look your videos and try the good pronunciation with you!
Barbara
Always a pleasure to help you Barbara!
Hi Christina,
Thanks for the “boosting injection”! Actually, I already knew this “quirk” of the English language but I tend to forget it…
I’m sending you an example I wish to share with the Speak English Community:
“Any applicant interested in the position of trilingual assistant should send their resume in English.”
By the way, your today’s lesson reminds me a an issue I’ve been struggling with for a long time. And nobody has been able to give me a clear answer, so far. Actually, it’s about the same “quirk” but the other way round:
Is the noun “staff” always considered a plural noun? Or just sometimes? Or is there a difference between American and British English?
E.g., I’d say: “Staff ARE asked to fill in the questionnaire…”, but I’ve already seen similar sentences in which “staff” was followed by a verb in the singular form.
And how about the noun “company”: can we replace “company” with “they” to avoid repetition?
Thank’s in advance and have a great day!
Kirsten
Hi Kirsten,
Good to “see” you again! How have you been?
Thanks so much for your example, which is perfect.
As for your question, the answer is… “it can be both” Argh!!
What’s the difference?
If you use “staff” to refer to the collective unit as a whole, we use “is”: The staff at the hospital is very good.
But if you use “staff” to talk about the actions of all the individuals who make up the staff, we use “are”: The staff are working to find a solution to the problem”
And for your question about “company”, yes, you can use “they”. “The company is hiring. They said you need to send a CV.”
Hope that helps!
Incredible ! never hear about that before !
Everyone who wants to learn English, they should know that !
What English teachers teach students then? I am wondering
Hah! Perhaps the teachers have so many “basics” to cover in class that they don’t have time to focus on these details of English. But it’s true that many learners don’t know this aspect of grammar. I’m happy that you learned something today 🙂
Hi Christina!
I was always lost using these sorts of sentences. I was always trying to find another way to express them, because I was not sure how to manage.
Thanks to you, from now on I will feel free to use them.
It’s a very good grammar lesson. I really enjoyed it.
You’re a brilliant and great teacher.
Aïcha
That’s great Aïcha! Yes, you can feel confident using the structures that you’ve already been using! And it’s a real pleasure to read that you enjoyed this lesson. Thanks so much for the kind words 🙂
Can I say; Every visitor to the US should make sure their passports are valid. Any student who needs help should raise their hands.
I didn’t know this rule! Everyone has to improve their grammar.
Thank you for this fun lesson
Sybille
Everuone who don’t know where the party is, they may call me.
Thank you Christina for your videos and lessons. Lider
Sory, Everyone
I was shocked the first place I saw the title.
With further reading, I began to consume what it refers.
Anybody, everybody, somebody, etc is considered “THEY” or “THEM” because they (who did something) are not described. Anybody, everybody, somebody calls possibility among people which translates “It could be this person or that person”. Referring the person (any) with neutral (without specific identity, especially gender) pronoun is the most possible way to ease us to determine the subject, ignoring who did it.
🙂
Hi Wahyu, Thanks so much for your comment. You’re sort of right. With these examples, we’re not very concerned about identifying or ignoring the person who did the action. We’re searching for a way to refer to a person that could be man or woman, but who is not identified, so we can’t really say “he” or “she” because it could be either. “They” and “them” are just ways to do this!
Hi Christina,
It was a great read. Nice article and writing style. Everyone wants to learn English but they don’t wanna learn English grammar. Not all of them, but most of them.
Sure, everybody needs to focus on different things at different times in the process of learning. Sometimes it’s useful to focus on grammar to clean up a specific aspect of how you speak English, other times it’s vocabulary, pronunciation, or fluency. It just depends on the learner and their needs!
Hi Christina.
I’d like to thank you very much about this clear explanation about the use of “they” as a singular pronoun. In fact, I’ve seen it used often but I rarely found myself in a situation I need to use it. Perhaps it is because nobody wants to show them they don´t know if they are using it correctly.
Take care, Christina. See yo soon.
Gabi.
Hi Gabriela, Thanks so much, I’m glad that it helped you to understand this one aspect of English. Even if you don’t need to use it immediately, it’s always good to be able to recognize and understand it! That being said, you gave a nice example in your comment, so good job on immediately applying what you learned. 🙂
Hi, Christina.
It seems to me, that I agree with Wahyu .
You give a example: “Everyone wants to speak fluent English, but THEY don’t have to be perfect to be fluent.” But as far as I know English rules, if “they” is singular here, then you should put “doesn’t instead of “don’t” after “they”. I think in such cases we’d rather should imagine the words everyone, anybody, any one and so on as someone or everyone from a group of people. “Group” is singular, but we mean any indefenite person of indefenite number of people from this group. It can be this or this or that person or those people, it doesn’t matter which one and how many people, So when we say “Everyone wants” we mean indefenite number of people (that can be one or two or five, it doesn’t matter) from defenite group. Because of this we use “they” as a plural noun. By the way, in Russian we would say: “Everyone wants to speak fluent English, but he don’t have to be perfect to be fluent.”
Thanks.
Serg.
Hi Serg, Thanks for your examples. And “they” is funny in that it can be used to designate singular (ex. “If anyone wants to join the group, they have to join today.”) but the verb agrees with “they” as if it were plural. And this is true if it’s an indefinite number for a group (like in your example with “everybody”) or a definite number.
That’s interesting about how the Russian language functions! Each language is different and it’s always good to be aware of these differences!
Thanks!
Hello Christine,
can you comment the following use of they:
A speaker should never turn their back to an audience.
And is it possible to use pronouns his/her with they?
thanks,
Nasiba.
Hi Nasiba,
Your sentence is absolutely correct: “A speaker should never turn their back to the audience” because the speaker could be a man or a woman.
And could you give me an example with the pronoun his/her and they? I can tell you if it’s correct or not.
Hi Christina,
When someone’s thinking of doing a good deed they should do it quickly.
That is a great example, both for the use of “they” AND for the idea in the sentence! 🙂
Hi, Christina!
I heard about writing “them” or “they” when it didn’t specified who did the action once, but I was not quite sure and I always avoided to use that kind of sentences because of it. Now thanks to this grammar aclaration I won’t hesitate at the time of using it:
-Almost every English lerner doesn’t use “they” or “them” as a singular pronoun in their sentences.
– A student should find ways to correct their grammar.