Four questions that may or may not be imponderable. Your thoughts?
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Jeruba (
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12 hours ago
1. Ok, let’s say “they” when we don’t want to specify a gender. But shouldn’t we say “they IS” when we’re speaking of one person? I’d much rather see a clash in number between pronoun and verb than change the meaning of “are.”
2. Does the double-g in “egg” bother you? Particularly now, when we’re seeing it in print all the time.To me it makes the word too full and bulbous-looking (especially in a serif font such as Times Roman). Wouldn’t it be better, at least, to say “one eg, two eggs”?
3. Why not have a league of trans athletes so there’s no question about which team they should play on?
4. Couldn’t we answer a major objection to banishing Daylight Savings Time by having the schools change their hours in the dark winter months?
Ok, bracing for incoming.
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4 Answers
1. I like to think of that “they” as “he or she or whoever” and so plural. I know some people do a singular “they”, which is harder for me to get used to.
2. No. I’m very used to eggs. What bothered me was L’eggs but less now that they aren’t as common a sight.
3. I can think of various arguments pro and con, none of which I feel up to engaging much. I imagine much of the cons would be about aspects of transphobia.
4. I suppose, though I expect some of it would remain for some working parents having to negotiate different schedules at different times of the year.
—“They” is plural
—Egg has been spelled this way forever. E.G. has a different meaning
—A trans league would not have enough people to make it worthwhile/practical. They’re perhaps one half of one percent. Just make it ok for biological females to participate in male sports if they want. I believe it already is for the most part.
—Leave daylight savings time in all the time, and yes, just change school hours in latitudes where it makes sense. It’s a majority who favor leaving it in all year.
Well, the English language is a big ol’ bully who steals the homework of the other languages, so all bets are kinda off.
1. The singular “they” has been in use for anywhere from half a millennium or more (simple Googling will give sources) so why change the established verb form now? The language has so very many inconsistencies that are pretty much set in stone, can’t see a point to changing this one.
2. Probably easier to revert to the Latin, ovum and ova, although could cause confusion as well, as “ovum” is a masculine noun, as denoted by the “um”, and, really, aren’t they fundamentally female things?
3. From this: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/what-science-tells-us-about-transgender-athletes#:~:text=In%20December%2C%20NCAA%20President%20Charlie,in%20girls'%20and%20women's%20sports.
” In December, NCAA President Charlie Baker testified that out of more than 500,000 total college student athletes, he believed fewer than 10 were transgender.”
Not enough for a league, or even a reasonable coffee klatch.
4. The switch, twice a year, affects many more people than just those associated with schools.
What’s difficult for me about #1 is that, for example, if we’re saying “Mary is driving to school” Mary is singular and so it’s “is.” If we say “Mary and Kathy are driving to school,” then it would be “are” because there are two people that we’re talking about. However, if Mary is a “they” but a singular, then to say “They is driving to school” sounds odd. I think of ‘are” as going with a plural, and “is” as going with a singular. I know language evolves and I will come around with being familiar with this.
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