Re:In defence of Douglas Crockford
by niftich on Sunday September 04, 2016 @05:17AM
(#12423487)
Currently it's 'they'. Yes, there's some confusion about whether it refers to one person or more, but that confusion already exists with 'you', in all except regional usages.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
The difference is that "you" can be grammatically singular or plural, whereas "they" is definitely grammatically plural.
"they gives me the shivers"
Re:In defence of Douglas Crockford
by hermanhermitage on Sunday September 04, 2016 @07:48AM
(#12423864)
In, "they give me the shivers", they is singular.
You did see that I made a distinction between grammatically and semantically, right?
Grammatically, the "they" is clearly plural, as it is used with the plural verb form "give" and not the singular "gives".
Look up "subject verb agreement".
Re:In defence of Douglas Crockford
by Dylan16807 on Sunday September 04, 2016 @02:59PM
(#12426086)
"they" and "you" act exactly the same way. Which is no surprise, because both are originally plural. What difference are you referring to?