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Native English Query! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
 Hencke Tetraglot Moderator Spain Joined 6897 days ago 2340 posts - 2444 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, Finnish, EnglishC2, Spanish Studies: Mandarin Personal Language Map | Message 17 of 30 22 April 2010 at 1:27pm | IP Logged | |||||
How so? The subject was "someone": "someone who never studied grammar tries to use the labels they don't understand". The comment was right, afaics. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Zeitgeist21 Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5648 days ago 156 posts - 192 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 18 of 30 22 April 2010 at 1:33pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I was confused by the fact that I used "are" but it was indeed singular, and you're right someone is the subject of the sentence. I got confused... again :D
But now I finally understand ^^ 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hvorki_ne Groupie Joined 5389 days ago 72 posts - 79 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic | Message 19 of 30 22 April 2010 at 3:22pm | IP Logged | |||||
Canada is opposed to singular 'they' that strongly? What do they use as a non-binary singular pronoun, then? (aka: Gender neutral, but as not everyone has a neutral gender I prefer non-binary) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5959 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 20 of 30 22 April 2010 at 6:32pm | IP Logged | |||||
Nah, I was mostly just having fun and expressing my strong personal preference. I hear the use of "they" in the circumstances described in this thread a fair bit, but it just seems wrong. If I know the gender of the person about whom I am speaking, I will use the correct gender form of the pronoun even if the person with whom I am speaking does not happen to know the gender of that person (ie. "I met my friend last night and SHE said something funny" - using THEY would just be wrong in my view). If neither I nor the person with whom I am speaking knows the gender of the person being described, but I know that there is only one person, then I would use the clause "he or she" about 105% of the time over using something that is gender neutral but clearly wrong in number (ie. "they"). It is wrong in my view to deliberately get the number wrong just to avoid getting the gender wrong, when one can be accurate by simply using "he or she". Edited by Spanky on 22 April 2010 at 6:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6014 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 21 of 30 22 April 2010 at 6:51pm | IP Logged | |||||
Is it also wrong in thy view to deliberately get the number wrong when thou speakst in the second person...? ;-) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hvorki_ne Groupie Joined 5389 days ago 72 posts - 79 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic | Message 22 of 30 22 April 2010 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's cool- It's always nice seeing people who respect their friend's pronouns. I have to admit, I always get a bit weird, especialyl when their pronoun is it! "My friend is celebrating its birthday"- I feel like I have to specify that they use the pronoun. How do you deal with ti when your friend has an unusual pronoun? Do you just go on and not make a big deal about it? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hvorki_ne Groupie Joined 5389 days ago 72 posts - 79 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Icelandic | Message 23 of 30 22 April 2010 at 7:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
That's cool- It's always nice seeing people who respect their friend's pronouns. I have to admit, I always get a bit weird, especialyl when their pronoun is it! "My friend is celebrating cos birthday"- I feel like I have to specify that they use the pronoun. How do you deal with it when your friend has an unusual pronoun? Do you just go on and not make a big deal about it and wait for them to ask? 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Spanky Senior Member Canada Joined 5959 days ago 1021 posts - 1714 votes Studies: French | Message 24 of 30 22 April 2010 at 7:26pm | IP Logged | |||||
I have not been in this situation. Of actually having real friends, I mean. By this, I do not mean to belittle the important role Rupert my stuffed bear played in my life when I was younger (ie. all the way through my twenties and thirties), but really, Rupert was too fickle to be considered much of a real friend. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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