Question for the formally qualified grammarian: When using singular “they”, which is correct?
“When a person is biased, they make mistakes”
“When a person is based, they makes mistakes”
The second sounds absolutely horrible, but if singular “they” is really being used as a singular in the same sense as “he” or “she”, it sounds like it ought to be correct.
Have a gander at Language Log where the “singular they” has been extensively discussed—mostly, apparently, because it’s something of a litmus test to determine whether someone is a descriptivist or a prescriptivist grammarian; the LL crowd falling squarely in the descriptivist camp.
The short answer is that it’s grammatically plural; it’s a “plural of indeterminacy of number” primarily, and has taken on under social pressure an aspect of “plural of indeterminacy of gender”. Number one is correct.
Question for the formally qualified grammarian: When using singular “they”, which is correct?
“When a person is biased, they make mistakes”
“When a person is based, they makes mistakes”
The second sounds absolutely horrible, but if singular “they” is really being used as a singular in the same sense as “he” or “she”, it sounds like it ought to be correct.
Consider:
When you, Yvain, are biased, you make mistakes
Clearly in the 2nd person singular, the verb displays “plural” agreement. It’s the same for “they”.
Have a gander at Language Log where the “singular they” has been extensively discussed—mostly, apparently, because it’s something of a litmus test to determine whether someone is a descriptivist or a prescriptivist grammarian; the LL crowd falling squarely in the descriptivist camp.
The short answer is that it’s grammatically plural; it’s a “plural of indeterminacy of number” primarily, and has taken on under social pressure an aspect of “plural of indeterminacy of gender”. Number one is correct.
ETA: background info.