By David Shaffer
When I was growing up, my English teacher told us that the proper way to express the third-person singular as a generic pronoun was to use he/him/his. Never mind that it was a masculine pronoun; it was the “convention” to keep things neat and succinct. Later, as the women’s liberation movement gained momentum, the need for more gender equality in the English lexicon and grammar became apparent.
One “solution” to the situation was to use feminine pronouns in place of the former masculine ones for the generic third-person singular: she/her/hers. This received some acceptance, especially in reference to occupations in which the majority were female (e.g., A conscientious elementary teacher will know her students before she first meets them in her classroom). However, what this solution actually does is create the same problem as what existed before, only in reverse!
Other, more balanced alternatives soon arose. To start with, he or she and him or her came into use, but it was soon found that this alternative could easily become too wordy and was distracting. Here is such an example:
— A conscientious teacher will know his or her students before he or she first meets them in his or her classroom and sits down at that well-worn desk of his or hers.
In writing, this was soon condensed with a slash (/) replacing the or (e.g., he/she, his/hers, him/her) but still read as “or” as in the example sentence above. This solution preserved the gender equality aspect of pronoun usage, but it had only limited effectiveness in limiting wordiness and awkwardness.
The next attempt at conciseness to develop was the combination form (s)he as well as s/he. This succeeded at conciseness, but what it gained in brevity, it lost in cumbersomeness. I never really was sure how to read it aloud: Should it be “she or he,” or should it be “he or she,” or maybe just “sshe.” Another downside was that this slashing or bracketing approach only worked for the subjective pronouns; there was no slick way to condense him/her or his/hers.
With none of the above options being particularly satisfactory, the quest for a more suitable third-person singular pronoun continued. What was found was they (and its variants them, their, theirs, etc.). And an uproar it precipitated among the prescriptivists, the school grammar teachers, and intransigents in general: “No, no, no, your can’t use they as a singular pronoun; it’s plural!”
Yes, it is plural, but that doesn’t mean that it can’t be used as a gender-neutral singular form also. English has long used you as both a second-person singular and plural pronoun without any confusion to speak of. And if you think of it, we use they, their, etc. quite frequently in spoken English (e.g., “Each student quietly went to their seat”). This is not a new phenomenon, nor is it one restricted to the spoken word. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, they, as a singular pronoun, appeared in writing as far back as 1375, only about a century after the word first appeared as a plural pronoun in the English language, and both have been commonly used in English ever since.
Although once discouraged in academic writing, they and its grammatical variants are gaining more and more acceptance over time as third-person singular pronouns in written English. More and more publishing houses, dictionaries, and style guides are acknowledging, accepting, and approving of they as both a generic and specific third-person singular pronoun. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the dictionary that the APA style guide refers to for grammar and spelling, now recognizes they as both a generic and specific third-person singular pronoun. And APA and MLA style guidelines do the same.
The following are example sentences of the use of they in generic and in specific third-person singular contexts:
Generic
— Each student submitted their test paper before time expired.
— The motivated language learner supplements their in-class study.
Specific
— Leslie shared their difficulties as a non-binary individual.
— The last student to hand in their test paper still had 20 minutes of test time remaining. [gender unknown]
However. The acceptance of they as a singular pronoun is still in flux. There are sentence constructions in which the use of singular they may seem awkward. But there are several strategies that the writer may employ to amend this: rephrasing, using plurals, and dropping the pronoun. The following are examples:
Rephrasing
— When a student wishes to enroll late, that individual must go to the registrar’s office.
Using Plural Nouns and Pronouns
— All the students submitted their test papers before time expired.
Dropping the Pronoun
— A teacher must not allow their biases to affect their grading.
One final item that deserves mention on the topic of singular they is the reflexive pronoun themselves. If they can be used as a singular pronoun, it follows that themselves also can. However, this still feels somewhat awkward to me:
— A language learner needs to learn how to study by themselves.
This feeling of awkwardness is probably because selves is a plural form that has an accompanying singular form, self. I personally prefer to use themself in constructions such as the one above. And indeed, while APA recognizes themselves as the preferred singular reflexive pronoun, it recognizes themself as an option. A quick Google search will show you that the use of themself is quite widespread, and Merriam-Webster will tell you that its use is trending upward. I will continue to use it and predict that it will overtake themselves as the most commonly used third-person singular reflexive pronoun in the future.
In conclusion, don’t feel afraid to use they and its variants as singular forms even in your research. APA approves of it. But if the resultant structure seems awkward for whatever reason, remember that there are alternative strategies to employ.
References
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.).
Baron, D. (2018). A brief history of singular "they.” Oxford English Dictionary. https://public.oed.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-singular-they/
Merriam-Webster. (2019, September). Is it ever okay to say "themself"? – Shh. Don't tell autocorrect. https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/themself
Modern Language Association. (2020). How do I use singular “they”? https://style.mla.org/using-singular-they/
The Author
David Shaffer, PhD, is a past president of Korea TESOL. Over the past 25 years, he has been involved in KOTESOL publications (including The English Connection, Korea TESOL Journal, and KOTESOL Proceedings, which follow APA style guidelines). Dr. Shaffer is the chair of the KOTESOL Publications Committee, and he is the owner of three editions of the APA publication manual, all with very ragged edges.
