ALT TEXT:
- 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”
You can always use context clues. For example you go they for singular and they all for group.
But that’s the hiccup, point in case; you have to stop for probably just a split second to create the distinction of “they” versus “they all/they both/ both of them/all of them” with singular versus plural. Which again isn’t hard, and people should just get used to it till it’s not any longer.