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Native English Query!

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30 messages over 4 pages: 1 2 3 4 
hvorki_ne
Groupie
Joined 5389 days ago
72 posts - 79 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: Icelandic

 
 Message 25 of 30
22 April 2010 at 7:30pm | IP Logged 
Spanky wrote:
hvorki_ne wrote:
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?


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.

I know what you mean... I have a cat. You can never tell if they love you, only care so long as you're feeding them, or are actively plotting your murder...

I've decided to embrace my peer's diluting of the word friend to mean "A person you may have met once and who's name you probably don't even remember". I wheep for the direction the American language is going in... (I don't intend to start an argument about whether or not the American version of English is a separate language or not. I also don't want to be so embittered as to think that the rest of the English-speaking countries are going in the same way as America seems to be grammatically...)


But on topic: "She or he" is a bit of a mouthful. It'd be nice if we have another option- but that seems to be a long time coming, and singular they has been in use.
I'm on the fence about using 'they' for people who's gender you know (if they don't want "they" used), some people don't care, others find it offensive, I guess it depends on the circumstances. I imagine if you're trying to hide their gender (say you're gay and don't want people to know) it makes sense, though. Saying "well, I had a date last night- I had a great time with him or her" is going to raise a lot of questions.

Edited by hvorki_ne on 22 April 2010 at 7:39pm
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ruskivyetr
Diglot
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5484 days ago
769 posts - 962 votes 
Speaks: English*, German
Studies: Spanish, Russian, Polish, Modern Hebrew

 
 Message 26 of 30
01 June 2010 at 1:45am | IP Logged 
This actually makes me wonder...
How would you say this in another language? For example:
Jemand ist hier, Kannst du die Tuer fuer _ aufmachen? How would you express that in German, or any other
language for that matter?
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tracker465
Senior Member
United States
Joined 5355 days ago
355 posts - 496 votes 
Speaks: English*
Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch

 
 Message 27 of 30
01 June 2010 at 2:29am | IP Logged 
The singular they is wrong, though many people do use it. I am against this usage though, and I negatively critique works which use they with this incorrect usage, though in speech I am more understanding.
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ReneeMona
Diglot
Senior Member
Netherlands
Joined 5338 days ago
864 posts - 1274 votes 
Speaks: Dutch*, EnglishC2
Studies: French

 
 Message 28 of 30
01 June 2010 at 7:57am | IP Logged 
tracker465 wrote:
The singular they is wrong, though many people do use it. I am against this usage though, and I negatively critique works which use they with this incorrect usage, though in speech I am more understanding.


This is interesting. I study English at university and I have been told to use they as a good and acceptable alternative to awkward solutions like he/she. I personally really like this feature of English as it seems like a natural way to avoid the he/she problem.

ruskivyetr wrote:
How would you say this in another language? For example:
Jemand ist hier, Kannst du die Tuer fuer _ aufmachen? How would you express that in German, or any other
language for that matter?


I don't know about German but in Dutch we don't have a singular they. Sometimes people write "hij of zij"/"hem of haar" but very often it's just "hij"/"hem" (he/him). I would certainly expect the he/she form from a more formal text though this does get annoying after a while.
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Declan1991
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Ireland
Joined 6442 days ago
233 posts - 359 votes 
Speaks: English*, German, Irish, French

 
 Message 29 of 30
01 June 2010 at 11:00am | IP Logged 
ReneeMona wrote:
ruskivyetr wrote:
How would you say this in another language? For example:
Jemand ist hier, Kannst du die Tuer fuer _ aufmachen? How would you express that in German, or any other
language for that matter?


I don't know about German but in Dutch we don't have a singular they. Sometimes people write "hij of zij"/"hem of haar" but very often it's just "hij"/"hem" (he/him). I would certainly expect the he/she form from a more formal text though this does get annoying after a while.
In German jemand is just masculine, so fuer ihn. That's the usage that's most natural to me. I rarely go for these he/she things, or they. Latin and French are the same, and in Irish, it's not really noticeably, and when it is, both forms are used (for example, a c(h)at).

Edited by Declan1991 on 01 June 2010 at 11:05am
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Wise owl chick
Senior Member
Ecuador
Joined 5321 days ago
122 posts - 137 votes 
Studies: English

 
 Message 30 of 30
01 June 2010 at 11:41am | IP Logged 
ReneeMona wrote:
tracker465 wrote:
The singular they is wrong, though many people do use it. I am against this usage though, and I negatively critique works which use they with this incorrect usage, though in speech I am more understanding.


This is interesting. I study English at university and I have been told to use they as a good and acceptable alternative to awkward solutions like he/she. I personally really like this feature of English as it seems like a natural way to avoid the he/she problem.



Someone told me that in English it's "she" if you don't know, or "her". I find that
funny! They don't use "one" or "one's" at all, and I thought that it would be "he" or "his".


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