They

Look up they, them, their, or theirs in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

They (pronounced /ðeɪ/) is a third-person, personal pronoun (subject case) in Modern English.

Personal pronouns in standard Modern English

		Singular			Plural
		Subject	Object	Reflexive	Subject	Object	Reflexive
First		I	me	myself	we	us	ourselves
Second		you	you	yourself	you	you	yourselves
Third	Masculine	he	him	himself	they	them	themselves
	Feminine	she	her	herself
	Neuter	it	it	itself

Contents 1 Usage 2 Etymology 3 See also 4 References

[edit] Usage

This section requires expansion.

The "singular" they is the use of this pronoun, where they is used as a gender-neutral singular rather than plural pronoun. The correctness of this usage is disputed.^[1][2]

The singular pronoun they is even found in formal or official texts. For example, a 2008 amendment to the Canadian Criminal Code contains the following text:

if a peace officer has reasonable grounds to believe that, because of their physical condition, a person may be incapable of providing a breath sample... (subparagraph 254(3)(a)(ii))

Which contrasts, for example, with subsection 252(2):

...evidence that an accused failed to stop his vehicle... and give his name and address is, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, proof of an intent to escape civil or criminal liability.

[edit] Etymology

This section requires expansion.

Personal pronouns in Middle English

		Singular			Plural
		Subject	Object	Possessive	Subject	Object	Possessive
First		I	me	mi(n)	we	us	ure
Second		thou	thee	thy	ye	you	your
Third	Impersonal	hit	it/him	his	he they	hem them	hir their
	Masculine	he	him	his
	Feminine	sche	hire	hir

[edit] See also

• English personal pronouns
• Generic antecedents
• Objective pronoun
• Possessive pronoun
• Subjective pronoun
• Them

[edit] References

v • d • e Modern English personal pronouns I · he · she · it · one · we · you · y'all · they See also Modern English and Personal pronouns

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