How Do You Spell They
Fortunately, a simpler solution is available: they and the related forms them, their, theirs, and themselves have done the job for centuries, and are now widely accepted. If you are describing a noun that is owned by someone, the correct word is their, which is the third-person possessive form of they. Lastly, if you want to make the two words they and are into one contraction, theyre is a simpler, shorter version.
We use they and them to refer to specific groups of people, things and animals:. Definition of they pronoun in Oxford Advanced American Dictionary. Meaning, pronunciation, picture, example sentences, grammar, usage notes, synonyms and more.
You use they instead of `he or she' to refer to a person without saying whether that person is a man or a woman. The teacher is not responsible for the student's success or failure. They are only there to help the student learn.
The object form is "them". "They" can be used for both people or objects. 'They' can also be used for the singular third person if the gender of the person is unknown, or to purposely be ambiguous, or neither male nor female.
Some people choose to use 'they' as their pronouns. It was formerly considered correct to use a masculine pronoun such as he, him, or his to refer to people in general, as in everyone did his best, but it is now more common to use they, them, or their, and this use has become acceptable in all but the most formal contexts: everyone did their best. They (pronoun): A singular pronoun used to refer to a person whose gender is unknown, unspecified, or nonbinary.
The word "they" is a versatile pronoun in the English language. "They" refers to people in general (hence the expressions they say, so they say, you know what they say), whereas "one" refers to one person (often such that what is true for that person is true for everyone). One common bugbear of the grammatical stickler is the singular they.
For those who havent kept up, the complaint is this: the use of they as a gender-neutral pronoun (as in, Ask each of the students what they want for lunch.) is ungrammatical because they is a plural pronoun.
