Name: How to use NEUTRAL PRONOUNS in English!
Brand: english-with-me.com
SKU: english-with-me-com-1
Availability: OnlineOnly

critic

How to use NEUTRAL PRONOUNS in English!

preview

The singular THEY
Yes! The gender- neutral pronoun exists in English…but what is it? Gender-neutral language is language that avoids referring specifically to a particular gender or sex, and using a more neutral word in its place. Usually, we use THEY in English when we refer to someone whose gender we don’t know or don’t want to specify for different reasons.
We can also use it to refer to someone who is non-binary or when we want to be more inclusive and respectful!
It might surprise you to hear that the use of they singular THEY and gender-neutral language in English is not new! It has been part of the English language for centuries, and its use has even varied over time. The first written example was in 1375 in a text called ‘William and the Werewolf’ and since then it has made countless appearances in the English language. 
It was used by famous authors like William Shakespeare and Jane Austen, and in more recent times it’s used more than ever.
If you don’t know the gender of a person you are referring to, you should use the pronoun they (or them) instead of he/she or him/her.
This has been around in English for a long time, and is a polite way to not accidentally call a woman a man or vice versa!
It is also the perfect way to refer to an individual whose gender is unspecified or who identifies as non-binary.
They, them and their are all pronouns, but different types of pronouns, which have slightly different uses!
We use THEY as a subject pronoun, which is used to replace the subject of a sentence- instead of saying ‘Alex went to the shops’, you can say ‘THEY went to the shops.‘ You would do this if you don’t know Alex’s gender, or if Alex is non-binary and this is their preferred pronoun.
We use THEM as an object pronoun, which is used to replace the object of a sentence- instead of saying ‘I saw him at the party‘, you can say ‘I saw THEM at the party’. You would usually do this if you don’t know the gender of the person you are speaking about, or if they are non-binary and this is their preferred pronoun. 
We use THEIR as a possessive pronoun, which is used to show ownership or possession of something- If we say ‘THEIR house is beautiful‘, it means that the house belongs to them. If we are unsure of the person’s gender or if they are non-binary, instead of saying ‘Alex’s/His/Her house is beautiful‘, we could say ‘THEIR house is beautiful’
The use of THEY, THEM and THEIR instead of masculine or feminine pronouns like he/him/his or she/her/hers can be useful for when you are unsure of the person’s gender, when it is irrelevant to the conversation, when the person is non-binary or when you want to withhold the information of a persons gender for whatever reason!
The pronoun THEY can be used to speak about BOTH a GROUP of people and a SINGULAR person.
For example, when referring to a group:
They are all going to the party.
Or, when referring to a single person:
Alex said that they would meet us at the restaurant.
In the second example, Alex is only one person, but we can still use the pronoun THEY as a substitution for he or she if we don’t know Alex’s gender, or if they are non-binary.
Remember that when you are using THEY to talk about one person, you still need to conjugate the words that follow correctly for the pronoun THEY:
Take a look at this example: 
They are wearing a red t-shirt
Does it refer to 1 person or a group of people?
The correct answer is 1 person. Notice that ‘THEY’ is followed by the verb ‘ARE’, which is usually used with plural pronouns – even though we are using the plural pronoun THEY we know that we are talking about just one person, thanks to other indications in the sentence: ‘a red t-shirt’… it’s just one t-shirt and we can’t have a whole group of people squished into one red t-shirt can we?!
Watch one of the videos to learn more about the history and use of the neutral pronouns!! Feel free to choose which based on your level and what you feel the most comfortable with! 
Now it’s time to practice! Complete the exercises to get really confident with using the singular ‘they’! Then, check the answers on the last page (no cheating!) 
Get notified when a new article is up and it’s time to practice!
Want to learn more? Check out these articles that speak about the singular ‘they’ and some of the reasons why it is controversial!

The singular THEY
Yes! The gender- neutral pronoun exists in English…but what is it? Gender-neutral language is language that avoids referring specifically to a particular gender or sex, and using a more neutral word in its place. Usually, we use THEY in English when we refer to someone whose gender we don’t know or don’t want to specify for different reasons.
We can also use it to refer to someone who is non-binary or when we want to be more inclusive and respectful!
It might surprise you to hear that the use of they singular THEY and gender-neutral language in English is not new! It has...

How to use NEUTRAL PRONOUNS in English!

No article scores yet.

CRITIC REVIEWS

PUBLIC REVIEWS