# How do people use singular they?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-use-singular-they/605418>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 7, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-use-singular-they/605418 "2011-12-07T22:19:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2011, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-people-use-singular-they/605418/41 "2011-12-10T20:51:56Z")

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> [@BrotherCadfael](#):
>
> I have always held that the singular “they” is the solution to the “his or her” problem that does the least violence to the language, and should therefore be the solution adopted. To the extent that it makes language less precise, it is an acceptable trade-off.

Being “less precise” is this regard for the possessive doesn’t seem to be a problem in languages like Spanish, which use the same word for _his_, _her_ and _their_ in the singular.

All languages lack “precision” in one way or another, and people just use the language however they can to clarify things–_if and when it’s even necessary_. In this case, English is evolving to become more economical.

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