Every single person who complains that “they” is weird has, without the slightest wisp of a shadow of a doubt, said something along the lines of “yeah their coat is just over there” or “I think they were saying that…”. They can already do it, and it’s not hard, they just really wanna hate.

I’m fine with ‘they’, but I think you’re misrepresenting the very real problem that is inserting a 3rd-person pronoun as a personal pronoun due to the existing patterns ingrained and interpreted through speech.

It doesn’t hurt me to try and make the conscious change, I do actively try for the people in my life, but it DOES flow weird in my brain and takes more mental effort to keep straight. At least, it still does, it might get easier with more time, I don’t know.

We’ve been doing it for hundreds of years. If you want to fix English. If you really want to fix something then come up with a plural for “you”, that would be far more helpful.

You may not notice those times you say “they” like in the examples I already gave, but you do say it, and the only thing tripping you up is that you’re thinking about it. It’s like breathing, it’s weird when you’re paying attention but it’s not wrong and you’ve always done it.

It’s like you didn’t read their comment at all before replying. Singular they feels natural as a 3rd person pronoun for a party whose gender is unknown. When using it to describe a known person, it feels like you’re talking about an unknown person even though you do know them. It does feel weird to say and makes me pause any time I have to say it

Literally you already do it without a problem. You have, and I would bet large sums of money on it, said in regards to someone well know to you “they forgot it at home” or something to that effect. You already do this without thinking, the only extra layer is that you’re trying not to get it wrong, not that it’s difficult to get it right.

Just practice some more. You still won’t be perfect but these people literally do not care at all so long as you’re trying and aren’t attempting to take their rights away. They have bigger fish to fry.

If the person is well known to me, I would say he/she (if that’s their pronouns), not the 3rd person “they”

Oh, to be there when you say “they” haha

Or to watch you struggle to force yourself to say he/she so I “lose”.

It’s ok, we’ve only been doing it for hundreds of years; it’s just a passing fad, right?

I feel like you’re obtusely ignoring the difference in context between how the non-binary “they” is used (which is a new phenomenon) and how the 3rd person of indefinite gender “they” is used

Oh, go on then, explain it. I’d love to hear the nuanced differences between these two uses of 3rd person singular “they” for when he or she are not possible to use.

I feel like you haven’t read anybody else’s comments other your own, because I and others have already explained it

You so very very much did not. The only difference is that you simply don’t want to make a non-binary person comfortable.

There is absolutely no rule in the English language that states that if you know someone’s biological sex(of which there are more than two but let’s keep it simple) you must use the corresponding he/him/his or she/her/hers pronouns for them. You can 100% use “they” in reference to your own damn mother if you wanted to, it’s all above board.

So, please, explain the difference between the two things you mentioned before. I’m simply dying to hear what you have to say.

Youre actually wrong - I never said I dont use they/them pronouns for people who prefer it; I only said that it doesnt come off the tongue very naturally. It forces a pause in thought because it feels grammatically incorrect.

But to answer your request, here’s a comment I wrote earlier that you quite obviously didn’t bother to read before replying to it:

Singular they feels natural as a 3rd person pronoun for a party whose gender is unknown. When using it to describe a known person, it feels like you’re talking about an unknown person even though you do know them.

So, yes, I did say this before. You just chose not to read it

But explain how this is different in an actual grammatical sense.

Yes, it is incredibly minorly different in how it feels and guess what, it gets easier if you stop moaning about it and just lean into it. I simply refer to most people as “they” now and it both hasn’t caused any communication breakdowns and it’s made it super easy to not slip-up. Barely any mistakes these days, and it really didn’t take that long.

You’re making such a big deal out of it and for what?

I feel that you’re the one making a big deal about it. I’ve already agreed to behave according to your rules - but obedience isn’t enough for you. You require full on ideological purity as well. If someone tells you “yes i will use your preferred pronouns but bear with me since it doesnt feel grammatically correct, but im playing along because it causes less strife” why isn’t that enough for you?