# they
## English
### Pronunciation

* enPR: thā, IPA: /ðeɪ/
* Audio (US):(file)
* Audio (UK):(file)
* Rhymes: -eɪ

### Etymology 1

From Middle English þei, borrowed in the 1200s from Old Norse þeir, plural of the demonstrative sá which acted as a plural pronoun. Displaced native Middle English he from Old English hīe — which vowel changes had left indistinct from he (“he”) — by the 1400s, being readily incorporated alongside native words beginning with the same sound (the, that, this). Used as a singular pronoun since 1300, e.g. in the 1325 Cursor Mundi.
The Norse term (whence also Icelandic þeir (“they”), Faroese teir (“they”), Danish de (“they”), Swedish de (“they”), Norwegian Nynorsk dei (“they”)) is from Proto-Germanic *þai (“those”) (from Proto-Indo-European *to- (“that”)), whence also Old English þā (“those”) (whence obsolete English tho), Scots thae, thai, thay (“they; those”).
The origin of the determiner they (“the, those”) is unclear. The OED, English Dialect Dictionary and Middle English Dictionary define it and its Middle English predecessor thei as a demonstrative determiner or adjective meaning "those" or "the". This could be a continuation of the use of the English pronoun they's Old Norse etymon þeir as a demonstrative meaning "those", but the OED and EDD say it is limited to southern, especially southwestern, England, specifically outside the region of Norse contact.

#### Pronoun

they (third-person, nominative case, usually plural, sometimes singular, objective case them, possessive their, possessive noun theirs, reflexive themselves, or reflexive singular themself)
* (the third-person plural nominative) A group of entities previously mentioned. [since the 1200s]
    Fred and Jane? They just arrived.
    Dogs may bark if they want to be fed.
    Plants wilt if they are not watered.
    I have a car and a truck, but they are both broken.
** 1620, Giovanni Bocaccio, translated by John Florio, The Decameron, Containing an Hundred Pleaſant Nouels: Wittily Diſcourſed, Betweene Seuen Honourable Ladies, and Three Noble Gentlemen‎, Isaac Iaggard, Nouell 8, The Eighth Day:[…] purſued his vnneighbourly purpoſe in ſuch ſort: that hee being the ſtronger perſwader, and ſhe (belike) too credulous in beleeuing or elſe ouer-feeble in reſiſting, from priuate imparlance, they fell to action; and continued their cloſe fight a long while together, vnſeene and vvithout ſuſpition, no doubt to their equall ioy and contentment.
** 2010, Iguana Invasion!: Exotic Pets Gone Wild in Florida, →ISBN, page 9:There is no reason to be scared of iguanas. They do not attack humans.
* (the third-person singular nominative, occasionally proscribed) A single person, previously mentioned, but typically not if previously named and identified as male or female, especially if of unknown, irrelevant or (since 21st century) non-binary gender. Now increasingly used for an unnamed person even if the gender of the person is identified. [since the 1300s]
    Somebody requested a seat at Friday's performance but didn't say if they preferred the balcony or the floor.
    If someone enters the restricted area, they are required to present identification.
    One of the boys tripped over, and they hit their head on the door.
** 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomy 17:5:Then shalt thou bring forth that man, or that woman (which haue committed that wicked thing) vnto thy gates, euen that man, or that woman, and shalt stone them with stones till they die.
** 1997, J. K. Rowling, chapter 10, in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, (quoted edition: London: Bloomsbury, 2000, →ISBN, page 187):Someone knocked into Harry as they hurried past him. It was Hermione.
** 2008, Michelle Obama, quoted in Lisa Rogak, Michelle Obama in Her Own Words, New York, NY: PublicAffairs, 2009. →ISBN, page 18:
    One thing a nominee earns is the right to pick the vice president that they think will best reflect their vision of the country, and I am just glad I will have nothing to do with it.
** 2014, Ivan E. Coyote, Rae Spoon, Gender Failure, →ISBN:The boycott, led by Elisha Lim, of a Toronto gay and lesbian newspaper after it refused to use their preferred pronoun ["they"], citing grammar considerations, inspired me.
** 2015 April, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake (mayor of Baltimore), commenting on the death of Freddie Gray:
    I'm angry that we're here again, that we have had to tell another mother that their child is dead.
** For more quotations using this term, see Citations:they.
* (indefinite pronoun, vague meaning) People; some people; people in general; someone, excluding the speaker.
    Coordinate terms: one, generic you
    They say it’s a good place to live.
    They didn’t have computers in the old days.
    They don't make 'em like they used to.
** 1986 February 16, William Safire, “On Language; Moon Of My Delight”, in The New York Times‎, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on May 24, 2015, Section 6 / Magazine, page 10:Always get a second source, they tell us in investigative lexicography; […]
** 2002, Linda Perry, “Beautiful”, in Stripped, performed by Christina Aguilera:I am beautiful, no matter what they say
** 2025 March 11, Lauren Smiley, “The Worst 7 Years in Boeing’s History—and the Man Who Won’t Stop Fighting for Answers. Fatal crashes. A door blowout. Grounded planes. Inside the citizen-led, obsessive campaign to hold Boeing accountable and prevent the next disaster”, in Wired‎:Hurtling through the air that evening in seat 10C, I read the US House committee’s Max investigation, a disruptor of illusions. Like many fliers, I’d long ago made my bargain with risk. I’d taken comfort in statistics, summoned faith in the engineers and assembly workers, the pilots, the system. I’d shunted away the knowledge—paralyzing, if you let it in—that stepping on an airplane is an extraordinary act of trust. Deep in the report, I reached the part about a senior manager at Boeing’s factory in Renton, a guy named Ed Pierson, who seemingly knew what we all know when we soothe ourselves by thinking, They wouldn’t let it fly if it weren’t safe. We’re all relying on someone to be the “they.”
* (indefinite pronoun) The authorities: government, police, employers, etc.
    They'll tax us for the air we breathe next.
    They should increase our wages.
    Ha, you believe the moon is real? That's just what they want you to think.
* (bridge) The opponents of the side which is keeping score.
    Antonym: we

##### Usage notes

* (singular pronoun): Usage of they as a singular pronoun began in the 1300s and has been common ever since, despite attempts by some grammarians, beginning in 1795, to condemn it as a violation of traditional (Latinate) agreement rules. Some other grammarians have countered that criticism since at least 1896. Fowler's Modern English Usage (third edition) notes that it "is being left unaltered by copy editors" and is "not widely felt to lie in a prohibited zone." Some authors compare use of singular they to widespread use of singular you instead of thou. See Wikipedia's article on singular they for more; see also the usage notes about themself. (Compare he.)
* (singular pronoun): Even when used as a singular pronoun, in standard English singular they uses the same verb conjugations as plural they, like singular and plural you: "George, you were [not was] here when the masked figure ran past, were [not was] they wearing red or blue?"
* (singular pronoun): Infrequently, they is used of an individual person of known, binary gender. See citations.
* (singular pronoun): Infrequently, they is used of an individual animal which would more commonly be referred to as it. See citations.
* (indefinite pronoun): One is also an indefinite pronoun, but the two words do not mean the same thing and are rarely interchangeable. "They" refers to people in general (hence the expressions they say, so they say, you know what they say), whereas "one" refers to one person (often such that what is true for that person is true for everyone). You may also be used to refer to people in general; such use of that pronoun is called the generic you.
    They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
    One may say, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."
    You may say, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

##### Alternative forms

* They (honorific)
* dey (th-stopping)
* thay, theye (archaic)
* thaay, theye (Gloucestershire, Berkshire, possibly archaic)

##### Derived terms

* as they come
* as they say
* generic they
* if pigs had wings they would fly
* it doesn't matter what they say about you as long as they spell your name right
* let the chips fall where they may
* let the dice fall where they may
* they hate us 'cause they ain't us
* they hit the Pentagon
* they say
* they-uns
* will-they-won't-they

##### Related terms

* us versus them

##### Translations

Abkhaz: дара (dara)
Adyghe: ахэр (axɛr)
Afar: usun
Afrikaans: hulle (af) pl
Akan: wɔn (animate), ɛno (inanimate)
Albanian: ata (sq) m pl, ato (sq) f pl
Alviri-Vidari: اووا (uvā)
Amharic: እነሱ (ʾənäsu)
Arabic: (dual) هُمَا (humā), هُم (ar) pl (hum), هُنَّ (ar) f pl (hunna), (non-human) هِيَ (ar) (hiya)
Chadian Arabic: همن (humman)
Egyptian Arabic: هما (humma), هم m pl (humm)
Gulf Arabic: اهم (uhum, uhmə)
Hijazi Arabic: هُمَّ (humma)
Levantine Arabic: هن pl (hinne), هم pl (humme)
Tunisian Arabic: هُمَا m pl or f pl (humā)
Aragonese: els, ellos (masculine), ellas (feminine)
Armenian: նրանք (hy) (nrankʻ)
Old Armenian: նոքա (nokʻa)
Aromanian: nãsh m pl, nãse f pl, nãsi f pl, elj m pl, eali f pl, eli f pl
Assamese: সিহঁত (xihõt) (distal), ইহঁত (ihõt) (proximal), তেওঁলোক (teü̃lük) (distal, polite), এওঁলোক (eü̃lük) (proximal, polite)
Asturian: ellos (ast) m pl, elles (ast) f pl
Aymara: jupanaka
Azerbaijani: onlar (az)
Bambara: u
Bashkir: улар (ular)
Basque: haiek
Belarusian: яны́ (be) (janý)
Bengali: তারা (bn) (tara)
Breton: i (br), int (br)
Bulgarian: те (bg) (te)
Burmese: သူတို့ (sutui.), သူများ (my) (su-mya:)
Buryat: тэдэ (tede)
Carpathian Rusyn: вни́ (vný)
Catalan: ells (ca) m pl, elles (ca) f pl
Chechen: уьш (üš), уьзуш (üzuš)
Chichewa: iwo
Chinese:
Cantonese: (vernacular) 佢哋 (keoi$^5$ dei$^6$), (literary) 他們 / 他们 (taa$^1$ mun$^4$)
Dungan: таму (tamu), ана (ana)
Eastern Min: 伊各儂 / 伊各侬 (ĭ gáuk$^{→gó̤k}$-nè̤ng)
Gan: 佢們 / 佢们 (qie$^2$ miin), 渠們 / 渠们 (qie$^2$ miin)
Hokkien: 𪜶 (zh-min-nan) (in)
Jin: 他們 / 他们 (ta$^1$ me)
Mandarin: 他們 / 他们 (zh) (tāmen), (females only) 她們 / 她们 (zh) (tāmen), (non-human) 它們 / 它们 (zh) (tāmen)
Teochew: 𪜶 (ing$^1$), 伊儂 / 伊侬 (i$^1$ nang$^7$)
Wu: 伊拉 ($^6$yi-la; $^6$yi-laq)
Xiang: 他們 / 他们 (ta$^1$ men)
Chuvash: вӗсем (vĕs̬em)
Cornish: i, jei, anjei
Czech: oni (cs), ony (cs)
Dalmatian: jali m pl, jale f pl
Danish: de (da)
Dhivehi: އެ މީހުން (e mīhun̊)
Dutch: zij (nl), ze (nl)
Dyirbal: not used in Dyirbal (Dyirbal has no third-person pronoun)
Dzongkha: ཁོང (khong)
Egyptian: (suffix pronoun) (.sn), (Late Egyptian suffix pronoun) (.w), (enclitic pronoun) (sn), (stressed pronoun) (ntsn)
Erzya: сынь (sïń)
Esperanto: ili (eo), tiuj (eo)
Estonian: nemad (et) pl, nad (et) pl
Ewe: wo
Faroese: teir (fo) m tær (fo) f, tey (fo) n
Fijian: (dual) rau (fj), (paucal) iratou, (pl) ira
Finnish: (of people) he (fi), (of inanimate things and animals) ne (fi), (informally of people) ne (fi), hyö (fi) (dialectal)
French: ils (fr) m, elles (fr) f, (tonic) eux (fr) m pl, (neologism) iels (fr) n pl
Louisiana French: eux (fr), eusse (fr), eux-autres (fr)
Old French: (male only or mixed) il, (female only) eles
Friulian: lôr
Galician: eles (gl) m, elas f
Georgian: ისინი (isini)
German: sie (de)
Greek: αυτοί (el) m (aftoí), αυτές (el) f (aftés), αυτά (el) n (aftá)
Ancient Greek: οὗτοι m (hoûtoi), αὗται f (haûtai) ταῦτα (taûta); σφεῖς (spheîs)
Guaraní: ha'ekuéra
Gujarati: એવણ (evaṇ)
Hausa: (independent form) súu
Hawaiian: lāua du, lākou pl
Hebrew: הֵם (he) m (hem), הֵן (he) f (hen)
Higaonon: sidan
Hindi: वे (hi) (ve), ये (hi) (ye)
Hiri Motu: idia
Hopi: puma
Hungarian: ők (hu), (usually indicated by the suffix only) -nak, -nek
Icelandic: þeir (is) m pl, þær (is) m or f, þau (is) n pl
Ido: li (io), ili (io) m, eli (io) f, (things) oli (io)
Indonesian: mereka (id)
Ingrian: höö
Ingush: уж (už)
Interlingua: illes (ia) m, illas (ia) f, illos (ia) n
Irish: siad (conjunctive), iad (disjunctive), siadsan, iadsan (emphatic)
Old Irish: é
Istriot: luri
Italian: essi (it), loro (it)
Japanese: 彼ら (ja) (かれら, karera), あいつら (aitsura), (non-human) それら (ja) (sorera), (polite) あの人達 (あのひとたち, anohito-tachi), (more polite) あの方々 (あのかたがた, anokata-gata), 彼女ら (ja) (かのじょら, kanojora) (females only)
Judeo-Italian: אֵיסִי (ʾesi /⁠essi⁠/)
Kabuverdianu: es
Kaingang: ag
Kalmyk: тедн (tedn)
Kannada: ಇವರು m or f (ivaru), ಇವುಗಳು n (ivugaḷu), ಇವು (kn) n (ivu), ಅವರು (kn) m or f (avaru), ಅವುಗಳು n (avugaḷu), ಅವು (kn) n (avu)
Karakalpak: olar
Karakhanid: اُلارْ (olar)
Kashubian: òni
Kazakh: олар (kk) (olar)
Khakas: олар (olar)
Khmer: គាត់ (km) (koat), ពួកគេ (puək kee), គេ (km) (kei), ពួកគាត់ (puək kŏət)
Korean: 그들 (geudeul), 그녀들 (geunyeodeul) (females only)
Kyrgyz: алар (ky) (alar)
Laboya: rattu
Lakota: epi, iyepi
Lao: ພວກເຂົາ (phūak khao)
Latgalian: jī m, juos f, šī m, šuos f
Latin: ei (la)/ii (la), hi (la), illi
Latvian: viņi (lv) m, viņas (lv) f
Lithuanian: jie (lt) m pl, jos (lt) f pl
Livonian: nämād, ne
Louisiana Creole French: yé
Low German: sei (nds), se (nds)
Lü: please add this translation if you can
Macedonian: ти́е (tíe)
Malay: mereka (ms)
Maltese: huma (mt)
Manchu: ᠴᡝ (ce)
Manx: ad (gv), adsyn (emphatic)
Maori: rāua du, rātou pl
Mazanderani: وشون (vešun)
Mòcheno: sei
Mon: ညး တံ (ɲɛ̀h tɔʔ), ဍေံ တံ (ɗɛ̀h tɔʔ)
Mongolian:
Cyrillic: тэд нар (ted nar)
Mori Bawah: ira
Motu: idia
Neapolitan: loro
Ngarrindjeri: kar
North Frisian: (Heilgolandic) djo, (Mooring) ja
Northern Sami: soai dual, sii pl
Norwegian:
Bokmål: de (no)
Nynorsk: dei (nn)
Occitan: eles (oc), elas
Ojibwe: wiinawaa
Old Church Slavonic:
Cyrillic: они (oni)
Old East Slavic: они (oni), онѣ (oně) (females or non-animate)
Old English: hīe pl
Old Norse: þeir, þær, þau
Oromo: isaan
Ottoman Turkish: اولار (olar)
Pannonian Rusyn: вони (voni)
Papiamentu: nan
Pashto: هغوی (hoǧúy) (absent or distant), دوی (ps) (dūy) (visible or present)
Persian:
Iranian Persian: ایشان (fa) (išân), آنْها (ânhâ), آنان (fa) (ânân)
Pipil: yejemet, yehemet
Pitjantjatjara: (here) ngaa, (there) pala, (over there) nyara, (not visible) palunya
Polish: oni (pl) m (animate), one (pl) m or f or n (nonanimate)
Portuguese: eles (pt) m, elas (pt) f
Quechua: paykuna (qu)
Rapa Nui: raua
Romani: on
Kalo Finnish Romani: joon
Vlax Romani: von
Romanian: ei (ro) m, ele (ro) f, dumnealor (ro) m pl or f pl (formal, polite)
Romansch: els m, ellas f
Russian: они́ (ru) (oní)
Saho: usun
Scots: thay
Scottish Gaelic: (nonemphatic) iad, (emphatic) iadsan
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: о̀ни m pl, о̀не f pl, о̀на n pl
Roman: òni m pl, òne (sh) f pl, òna (sh) n pl
Shan: please add this translation if you can
Shor: ылар (ılar)
Sicilian: iddi (scn), idde f
Sidamo: insa
Sinhalese: ඔවුහු (owuhu), ඔව්හු (owhu), ඔවුන් (owun), එයාලා (eyālā) (informal)
Slovak: oni m pl, ony f pl or n pl
Slovene: ôni (sl) m, ône (sl) f, ôna (sl) n
Sorbian:
Lower Sorbian: wóni
Southern Altai: олор (olor)
Spanish: ellos (es) m, ellas (es) f, (neologism) elles (es) n
Sranan Tongo: den
Swahili: wao
Swedish: de (sv), dom (sv)
Sylheti: ꠔꠣꠁꠘ (tain), ꠔꠣꠞꠣ (tara)
Tagalog: sila (tl)
Tajik: эшон (tg) (ešon), онҳо (tg) (onho)
Tamil: அவர் (ta) (avar), இவர் (ta) (ivar)
Taos: ą́wąną
Tatar: алар (alar)
Telugu: వారు (te) (vāru), వాళ్ళు (vāḷḷu)
Tetum: sira
Thai: เขา (th) (kǎo), พวกเขา (pûuak-kǎo)
Tibetan: ཁོ་ཚོ (kho tsho), ཁོ་རང་ཚོ (kho rang tsho); ཁོ་གཉིས (kho gnyis) (dual); མོ་ཚོ (mo tsho), མོ་རང་ཚོ (mo rang tsho) (female); མོ་གཉིས (mo gnyis) (female, dual); ཁོང་ཚོ (khong tsho) (honorific); ཁོང་གཉིས (khong gnyis) (honorific, dual); ཁོང་རྣམ་ཚོ (khong rnam tsho) (high honorific)
Tigrinya: ንሳቶም m (nəsatom), ንሳተን f (nəsatän)
Tlingit: hás
Tok Pisin: ol (tpi)
Turkish: onlar (tr)
Turkmen: olar
Ukrainian: вони́ (uk) (voný)
Urdu: وہ (voh), یہ (yeh)
Uyghur: ئۇلار (ular)
Uzbek: ular (uz)
Venetan: lori (vec) m pl, lore (vec) f pl, łore, łori, łuri
Veps: hö
Vietnamese: họ (vi)
Volapük: (masculine) oms (vo), (feminine) ofs (vo), (neuter or mixed gender) ons (vo)
Welsh: (literary) hwy, (literary) hwynt, (spoken) nhw
West Frisian: hja (fy), sy (fy), se
Wolof: ñoom (wo)
Yiddish: זיי (zey)
Yoruba: (weak pronoun) wọ́n, (strong pronoun) àwọn
Yucatec Maya: letiʼob
Zealandic: 'ulder, (unemphatic) ze
Zhuang: dohde, vajde, hongminz, mbongmiz, gyoengqde
Zulu: bona class 2 (usually for people), yona class 4, wona class 6, zona class 8, zona class 10
ǃKung: si (people), hi (animals, things)
ǃXóõ: ùh, (emphatic) ùhʻù :

##### See also

Dialectal and obsolete or archaic forms are in italics.
personal pronounpossessive pronounpossessive determiner
subjective
objective
reflexive
first personsingular
I me (colloquial)memyself me mysenminemy mine (before vowels, archaic) me
plural
weusourselves ourself oursenoursour
second personsingular
standard (historically formal)
youyouyourself yoursenyours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)your
archaic (historically informal)
thoutheethyself theeself thysenthinethy thine (before vowels)
plural
standard
you ye (archaic)youyourselvesyours yourn (obsolete outside dialects)your
colloquial
you all y'all you guysyou all y'all you guysy'allselvesy'all's you guys' your guys' (proscribed)y'all's your all's (nonstandard) you guys' your guys' (proscribed)
informal / dialectal
(see list of dialectal forms at you and inflected forms in those entries)
third person
singular
masculine
hehimhimself hisself (archaic) hissenhis hisn (obsolete outside dialects)his
feminine
sheherherself hersenhers hern (obsolete outside dialects)her
neuter
it hitit hititself hitselfits his (archaic)its his (archaic) hits
genderless
theythemthemself, themselvestheirstheir
nonspecific (formal)
oneoneoneself–one's
plural
theythem hem, 'emthemselves theirsentheirs theirn (obsolete outside dialects)their :
* other attested third-person singular pronouns
* theirselves, theirself (nonstandard)

#### Determiner

they
* (now Southern England dialect or nonstandard) The, those. [from 14th c.]
** 1878, Louis John Jennings, Field Paths and Green Lanes, quoting an old East Sussex man:
    "They rooks as you see [...] only coom a few year agoo."
** 1883, Judy, or the London serio-comic journal‎, volume 33, Harvard University:Darn'd if they Cockney Chaps can zee there worn't nort but lie in him.
** 1895, Under the Chilterns: A Story of English Village Life:page 21: "But you spile [spoil] they gals - they won't be for no good, they won't." page 30: "'Twas all about they rewks [rooks]," he sobbed. page 54: "mucking the place up with they weeds"
** 1901, Gwendoline Keats (of Devon), Tales of Dunstáble Weir, page 55:
    "Bodies and souls," she cried, "if I didn't reckon to have hidden they boots safe from un in the stick-rick." "Off wi' they tight-wasted shoes o' yours, Martha."
** 1994 [1993], Irvine Welsh, Trainspotting, London: Minerva, →ISBN, page 114:Forty quid a fuckin ticket. No shy they British Rail cunts, ah kin fuckin tell ye.
* (US dialects, including African-American Vernacular) Their. [from 19th c.]
** 1974, Arthur Hippler, Hunter's Point: a black ghetto in America, page 88:MARY ELLEN is a different case from the others. She has five children and, she claims: "I don't know who they father is. I ain't never kept track. They is always another one. You know, I can catch me a guy[.]"
** 1988 February 7, Mike Riegle, quoting John Royal, “Why Does GCN Have A Prisoner Project?”, in Gay Community News, volume 15, number 29, page 10:It's a shame to see someone talk so bad about the gays and lesbians in prison. She is brainwash to the fact that she think every gay and lesbian in prison is guilty of they crimes.
** 2002, Eminem, Sing for the Moment:But all they kids be listenin' to me religiously / So I'm signin' CDs while police fingerprint me
** 2015, “Energy”, in If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late, performed by Drake:I got bitches askin' me about the code for the Wi-Fi / So they can talk about they timeline / And show me pictures of they friends
** 2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright, published 2016, page 175:He guessed one of the well-off people living in these houses must have took a shine to Cody and decided how he'd look good stuck up on they roof.

##### Alternative forms

* the (rare, dialect or eye dialect)
* thay, thaay (Gloucestershire, Berkshire, possibly archaic)

### Etymology 2

From earlier the'e, from there.

#### Pronoun

they
* (US dialectal) There (especially as an expletive subject of be). [from 19th c.]
** 1889, James Whitcomb Riley, Pipes o' Pan:They’s music in the twitter of the bluebird and the jay.
** 1974, Arthur Hippler, Hunter's Point: a black ghetto in America, page 88:MARY ELLEN is a different case from the others. She has five children and, she claims: "I don't know who they father is. I ain't never kept track. They is always another one. You know, I can catch me a guy[.]"
** 2000, Janice Giles, Hill Man, page 58:They ain’t nothin’ wrong with that.
** 2008, Christian Carvajal, Lightfall, page 82:But they ain’t nothin’ in there you didn’t already have.
** 2010, Alessandro Portelli, They Say in Harlan County: An Oral History, page 207:Well, they’s a lot of ‘em didn’t survive, if you believe me.

### References

* 1 2 3 “they”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2016, →ISBN.
* ↑ Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “they”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.
* ↑ Otto Jespersen, Growth and Structure of the English Language
* ↑ “thei, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 2016-01-28.
* ↑ Anne Bodine, Androcentrism in Prescriptive Grammar: Singular `they', Sex-indefinite `he', and `he or she', in Language in Society, v. 4 (1975), pages 129-146
* ↑ William Malone Baskervill and James Witt Sewell's An English Grammar (1896) says singular they is "frequently found when the antecedent includes or implies both genders. The masculine does not really represent a feminine antecedent"; it furthermore recommends changing it to he or she "unless both genders are implied". (Italics in original.)
* ↑ Michael Reed, Tech Book 1 →ISBN, Note about pronoun usage, page 9: "Singular they can introduce some ambiguity because the antecedent of the pronoun “they” could theoretically be a male or female [... but] English has survived the loss of pronouns such as thou (singular you) despite the consequent potential for ambiguity."
* ↑ John McWhorter, Word on the Street: Debunking the Myth of a Pure Standard (2009, →ISBN: "In this light, our modern grammarians' discomfort with singular they is nothing but this comical intermediate stage in an inevitable change, as misguided and futile as the old grumbles about singular you."

### Anagrams

* hyte, thye, ythe

## Middle English
### Etymology 1
#### Pronoun

they
* Alternative form of þei (“they”)

### Etymology 2
#### Determiner

they
* Alternative form of þi (“thy”)

### Etymology 3
#### Pronoun

they
* Alternative form of þe (“thee”)

### Etymology 4
#### Noun

they (plural þeies)
* Alternative spelling of þey (“thigh”)

### Etymology 5
#### Adverb

they
* Alternative spelling of þey (“though”)

#### Conjunction

they
* Alternative spelling of þey (“though”)

### Etymology 6
#### Numeral

they
* Alternative spelling of þey (“two”)