My English teacher back in highschool was very picky about using “they” like most people do. I can hear him say “you have to use FORMAL LANGUAGE” in my head still lol
If it’s an unknown person we were told to use “he or she” instead of “they” and “his or her” instead of “their” despite the fact that no one fucking talks that way when referring to an unknown individual.
Like even saying “everyone should bring their laptop to class” would be marked wrong because “everyone” is singular so the “correct” version is “everyone should bring his or her laptop to class” which imo is way more confusing
However, he was also fine with us using masculine singular pronouns when the gender of a person wasn’t known, which I guess is kind of the case in like Spanish and some other Latin languages but still, just really weird rules
What part of “formal language” did you not understand :P
I think it’s changed now but I think this is exactly it: for a long time, singular they has been held to be informal. It doesn’t matter how people normally talk, because rules of formality are not about that.
English lessons (or any lesson teaching you about your native language) are often expressly about teaching you a formal, standardised version of the language. Sometimes that’s for reasons of control and the imposition of a hierarchy, but there’s a practical element to it, as well. If you’re somewhere where different registers of a language are spoken, being able to write and speak the formal register (or the “prestige dialect”) unlocks opportunities and jobs.
Understanding of linguistic subtleties like “formal register” and “prestige dialect” is often lacking though so teachers often say that informal or regional dialect versions are wrong rather than merely not the preferred dialect you are learning in these lessons. I suppose there’s an argument that, in context, those two things are synonyms.
My English teacher back in highschool was very picky about using “they” like most people do. I can hear him say “you have to use FORMAL LANGUAGE” in my head still lol
If it’s an unknown person we were told to use “he or she” instead of “they” and “his or her” instead of “their” despite the fact that no one fucking talks that way when referring to an unknown individual.
Like even saying “everyone should bring their laptop to class” would be marked wrong because “everyone” is singular so the “correct” version is “everyone should bring his or her laptop to class” which imo is way more confusing
However, he was also fine with us using masculine singular pronouns when the gender of a person wasn’t known, which I guess is kind of the case in like Spanish and some other Latin languages but still, just really weird rules
What part of “formal language” did you not understand :P
I think it’s changed now but I think this is exactly it: for a long time, singular they has been held to be informal. It doesn’t matter how people normally talk, because rules of formality are not about that.
English lessons (or any lesson teaching you about your native language) are often expressly about teaching you a formal, standardised version of the language. Sometimes that’s for reasons of control and the imposition of a hierarchy, but there’s a practical element to it, as well. If you’re somewhere where different registers of a language are spoken, being able to write and speak the formal register (or the “prestige dialect”) unlocks opportunities and jobs.
Understanding of linguistic subtleties like “formal register” and “prestige dialect” is often lacking though so teachers often say that informal or regional dialect versions are wrong rather than merely not the preferred dialect you are learning in these lessons. I suppose there’s an argument that, in context, those two things are synonyms.
Only if you’re used to hearing it the wrong way.
‘Emails’[sic] probably sounds more ‘correct’ to you, even though it’s like ‘deers’ and ‘happies’.