When we are using "they" as a gender-neutral pronoun, why aren't we saying "is"?

We already use they as a singular third-person pronoun in everyday speech. Here’s an example:

“Someone left their wallet at the register. They are likely panicking and looking for it.”

I think it’s perfectly fine to use the plural verb with they even though we are referring to only one individual.

It would not just be “they is”. To be consistent, you would have to use second person singular for all verbs, giving “they speaks” and “they likes”. It just sounds awful.

You may find this entry about themself of interest.

My understanding is that those requesting the pronoun “they” consider themselves to be “genderfluid” & they don’t expect others to read their minds as to whether they are feeling as a he or a she at the moment, so they compromise & go with “they” to minimize the confusion. Although you are referencing 1 individual, you are possibly dealing with 2 preferences. So, “they are” would be correct because it entails 2 personalities.

I’d say “they” is always grammatically plural, even when it’s logically singular in the situation it’s talking about.

I should have said third person singular present tense.

@LadyMarissa That could apply to some people who use “they”, but not all who prefer “they” are genderfluid.

@Zaku is right. “They” is syntactically plural even if it is semantically singular in this case (cf. “everyone”—a syntactically singular, but semantically plural pronoun). It’s not impossible for grammatical number to change, but unlikely, especially considering that “they” is still used in a semantically plural sense. Semantic shifts (or expansions) happen more easily than syntactic ones.

“You are late” can refer to just one person as well as to a group. “They are” may develop the same way but I’m not sure it will catch on.

It’s a quirk in the English language I guess. There are so many.

“They is” sounds so wrong, even though your logic makes perfect sense.

I had to get used to using they instead of he or she even before gender identity was part of the equation. The assumption or use of “he” when gender was unknown didn’t bother me very much.