The Use of `They' as a Singular Gender-Neutral Pronoun

When you wish to refer to a generic individual whose gender is unspecified or unknown, what pronoun should you use? In general, you should use `they'. Ignore people who tell you that the singular use of `they' is grammatically incorrect. Not only is `they' commonly used in this way in spoken English, but it has a distinguished pedigree in literature, being used thus by William Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and George Bernard Shaw, among others.

When you don't know the gender of an individual, these are the alternatives as I see them, from best to worst:

  1. Use singular `they.' It is true that you cannot then determine (except from context) whether `they' refers to one or more people, and in some possible sentences this may be intolerably confusing. In these cases you should resort to one of the other options. (At other times the numerical ambiguity of `they' is just what you want. If you don't know somebody's gender, AND the context fails to indicate whether the somebody is one person or multiple persons, chances are good you don't know the number of people involved.)
  2. Use `he' whenever you don't know the gender. The reactionary position. I have some sympathy with this because it has some weight of tradition. But it's not as good as (1) because when you use `he' it's not clear whether you know the gender or not. Also, many people consider it sexist.
  3. Use either `he' or `she' randomly when you don't know the gender. This seems like a fairer version of (2), but because it lacks the pedigree of (2), it suggests even more strongly that you know the gender when in fact you don't.
  4. Use `he or she' everywhere, or contort your sentences to try to avoid the problem. Hopelessly awkward.
  5. Invent some word like `ve' and try to get other people to recognize/use it. A few people may go for it, but unless you become ruthless dictator of the Western world, your chances of large-scale success are small.
  6. Use `it.' I hesitate to even include this as an option. Generally considered insulting when applied to people. Sometimes you can get away with it when applied to newborn babies.

An excellent page: Everybody loves THEIR Jane Austen

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