Panel 1: A person with the text "Singular 'they'" written on them smiling with open arms.
Panel 2: "Singular 'They'" beaten up by others who said, "Singular they is ungrammatical. It's too confusing," "How can anyone use plural pronouns for singular," and "Every pronoun should only have one purpose."
Panel 3: "You" hiding from the mob who was beating "Singular 'They'"
Panel 4: "German 'Sie'" hiding with even more fear next to "You"

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[–] Obsession@lemmy.world 13 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You used to be just second person plural, thou was second person singular. At some point, thou fell out of favour and we started using just you

[–] I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.ml 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Alright, I can think of a few instances given that context. Funny how it's original usage is now relatively uncommon.

[–] TechLich@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

You can see it's still grammatically plural even when used as a singular with the other words that go around it too. "You are" instead of the singular "is".

It can even make singular things kinda behave like they're plurals. Like "The Lemmy user is posting comments" vs. "you, the Lemmy user are posting comments"

Back in the day it was "thou art posting comments" (singular) and "ye are posting comments"(plural). With "ye" becoming "you" over time. Although they also had more funky letters like ȝ and þ and stuff.