this post was submitted on 11 Jul 2025
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Cleaopatra is clearly refencing a plural group.
And "Anyone" as a noun is an undetermined number and is often treated as plural. All of these are referencing an ambiguous potential-group, not a context-explicit singular individual.
So you would say that when referencing a singular specific person of undeterminate gender in the third person we should use is? Because I am quite sure that, if that has ever been correct at all, it certainly isn't now. As per merriam webster: A student was found with a knife and a BB gun in their backpack Monday, district spokeswoman Renee Murphy confirmed. The student, whose name has not been released, will be disciplined according to district policies, Murphy said. They also face charges from outside law enforcement, she said.— Olivia Krauth
E: also, "Each member [of the women's touch football team] found something they could improve on in the future."
Dalby (Queensland) Herald (Nexis) 21 October 16, 2014 (as quoted in the oxford english dictionary)
Contradicts you as well unless you'd like to argue that "each man are fighting for himself" is correct.
If you used any other pronoun other than "they" it would be is and faces
The student also faces charges. S/He faces charges. They face charges. - this is only because we're conditioned based on they being plural.
Yeah? The pronoun is what causes it to be plural. This is how the grammar works. I don't understand what your argument is here.
That's clear you don't.
The number of people you're talking about causes it to be plural, not the misuse of a plural pronoun.
~~Which is why we use plural for singular second person, obviously~~
E: I am not gonna continue this prescriptivist argument any further. There are certainly cases where "they is" is correct, but that does not discount the singular "they are". This is my stance and remains my stance. You believe whatever you want, have a nice day.