Hello. I'm Gill at engVid, and today we have a lesson on personal pronouns, particularly
on "they", "them", and "their", which are the plural, third-person plural. So, why do
they... Why are they different? Well, subject, object, possessive. So, if they are the subject,
you say "they". "They are here." If they're the object, "I see them." Okay? And then "They
came in their car", possessive. So, that's those. So, that's third-person plural. And
then just to look at the third-person singular, because this is also relevant to the lesson,
we have masculine, feminine, and neuter in the singular, which we don't have in the plural.
These could be masculine or feminine or neuter to do with a thing rather than a person or
with an animal. But in the singular, we have masculine, feminine, neuter. So, "he", "him",
"his". Again, "He is here. I see him. He came in his car." Okay? And "she", "her", "hers".
And then for the neuter, "it", "it", and "its" for subject, object, possessive again. But
there's a situation where sometimes the plural pronouns are used in a singular sense, and
that happens when you don't actually know whether... If it's a person, you don't know
whether they're male or female. Okay? So, for example, if someone's talking about a
talk that they went to and they say, "The speaker was so inspiring." A speaker, that
could be a male or female. We don't know. So, somebody might reply, "Oh, really? What
did...?" So, they can't say, "What did he talk about?" and they can't say, "What did
she talk about?" either, because they don't know if it was a man or a woman at this point.
So, often in conversation, people would say, "What did they... What did they talk about?"
Because that's not specific to masculine or feminine; it's non-gender specific. So, it's...
It's an easy way of asking the question or referring to that speaker when you don't know
if they're male or female. You don't really want to say, "Oh, was it a man or a woman?"
when you can ask the question, "What did he talk about?" or "What did she talk about?"
You would... You want to immediately ask the question, "Oh, what did they talk about?"
So that's when you would use the plural, "they", when you know it's only one person, one speaker,
because you just don't know who... Who they are.
There's another thing that's done in writing when you're trying to be non-gender specific
and you want to include both genders. You want to use male and female if you're talking
about maybe a teacher teaching in a classroom, and say something general, like instead of
saying "he" or "she", which people have also done in the past, you know, the teacher in
the classroom, "he" or "she" needs to show that they understand their subject very well,
otherwise the students won't take them seriously. So, you can either say "he" or "she" should
appear knowledgeable about their subject, but there's... In writing, there's a way of
putting "s" stroke "he" so that it can mean "he" or "she" in that way, and it's quicker
and easier. It takes up less space, especially if you keep saying the same sorts of things
with the same construction, and you're constantly trying to say "he" or "she", you can just...
If it's in writing, you can put "s" stroke "he", "s" stroke "he", because people are
reading it silently, usually, so they don't have to say it. So, that's another option.
And then there's another thing that's happened quite recently. Some organizations, I think
especially charities and NGOs, when people send emails, they put their name at the bottom
and probably their job title, and then they've started putting how they want to be referred
to. So, they could put "Jane Smith, volunteer manager", "she" stroke "her", because Jane
is a woman's name. So, I mean, you'd think, well, why? Because, I mean, if she's a woman,
I would refer to her as "she" or "her". Anyway, so sometimes it's obvious, and then a mail
of somebody writing "John Smith, volunteer director", "he" stroke "him", and you think,
well, he's a man, so of course I'll say "he" or "him". But some people now, they don't
want to be referred to with a gendered pronoun. They don't want people to use a male pronoun
or a female pronoun when referring to them, and so they might put under their name "they"
stroke "them", because "they" as a person... Oh, how's John today? Oh, they are quite busy.
I suppose that's how you would say it. Or, how's John today? Oh, I haven't seen them
yet this morning. I guess that's how you would say it. I've never actually heard this put
into practice so far. I've only seen it written on emails, and usually I've seen the obvious
one anyway, "he" stroke "him", "she" stroke "her". I don't know if I've ever seen the
plural version, but it's something to look out for. And I don't know how... If that appears
at all in other languages other than English, but it's a new trend in the English language,
so that's something to look out for. So, it's an interesting development.
So, okay, so if you don't know the gender, going back to the older way of doing this,
you use "they". What did they talk about? And some people don't like this. Some people
think it's ungrammatical because "they" is plural and the speaker is singular. Some people
don't like the sound of it; it doesn't sound good to them. That's usually older generation
people, but, you know, I think it's... There's no other option, really, other than say, "Oh,
what did the speaker talk about?" It's a bit, you know, not so elegant. Okay.
And then similarly, there's someone at the door. "What _____ want?" Well, do you say
"What do _____ want?" or "What does _____ want?" So, perhaps you can work out what would you
put here? If you don't know... There's someone at the door, male or female, we don't know,
so how would you put that? And you've got to get the right form of the auxiliary verb
here, as well as the alternative to "he" or "she". So, it's obviously, again, "What _____
they want?" But if it's "they", which is supposedly plural in grammatical terms, "What do they
want?" If it was "he", it was "What does he want?" So, that would be "What does he want?"
or "What does she want?" So, you have to sometimes change the form of the verb, as well, to go
with the plural "they". There's someone at the door, what do they want? Because you're
not going to say, "Oh, are they male or female? Oh, all right, then. So, what does she want?"
So, you wouldn't take time to do that.
Right, and then here's another. "My new neighbour is coming to our party." Then someone replies,
"Great. When did _____ move in?" The new neighbour moving in next door. "When did..." Well, again,
it's "they", isn't it? "When did they move in?" But then once you know, you can say,
"Oh, when did he move in? When did she move in?" And there's no change to the verb form
here because it's a more straightforward... And it's the past form of "do", so "did" stays
the same. Okay.
Right, and then finally, another. "My cousin is visiting me next week." I've deliberately
chosen "cousin" because a cousin can be male or female. If I'd said "my niece" or "my nephew",
you immediately get the gender. So, sister, brother, I thought, no, I can't use that one.
What sort of family member has the same word for both genders? Ah, cousin. Right. "My cousin
is visiting me next week." That's nice. What's "name"? So, we've got to be non-gender specific,
so we've got... But this time it's the possessive form, isn't it? So, we've got to go for "their".
What's "their name"? Okay? You can't say, "What's his name? What's her name?" because
you don't know male or female, so what's "their name"? And it sounds okay because it's done
in conversation. People have spoken like this for years now, and it's just accepted. Even
though some people don't like it, there's really no alternative.
So, I hope that's been a helpful explanation, and if you'd like to do a quiz to test your
knowledge, go to the website, www.engvid.com, and do the quiz. And thanks for watching,
and hope to see you again soon. Okay. Bye for now.