they
pron.pron. the word you use to talk about a group of people, animals, or things. You can also use it for one person when you do not know if they are a man or a woman, or if they prefer not to say.
pron. the third-person plural personal pronoun, used as the subject of a verb to refer to two or more people or things previously mentioned. Also functions as a singular pronoun to refer to an individual of unspecified gender or a person who uses 'they/them' pronouns.
They are waiting for the bus outside.
If a student forgets their umbrella, they can borrow one from the front desk.
While the committee members disagreed on the specific timeline, they eventually reached a consensus regarding the primary objectives of the expansion project.
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *tóy Proto-Germanic *þai Proto-Norse ᚦᚨᛁᛉ (þaiʀ) Old Norse þeirbor. Middle English þei English they 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”), Swabian dia (“they”). 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.
From earlier the'e, from there.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Functions as the subject of the sentence; always takes a plural verb form even when used as a singular pronoun.
They is coming to the party.They are coming to the party.Even when 'they' refers to a single person, it must be paired with a plural verb.
For Mandarin speakers
Mandarin lacks the voiced dental fricative /ð/, leading speakers to substitute the alveolar plosive /d/. This causes 'they' /ðeɪ/ to be pronounced as /deɪ/, which is phonemically identical to 'day'.
他们 (tā men) means “they / them (specifically for groups)” — While 'they' functions as both a plural and a singular neutral pronoun in English, the Mandarin suffix 们 (men) is strictly plural. Learners may avoid using 'they' for individuals, preferring 'he or she' even when the gender is unknown.
In Mandarin, third-person pronouns 他 (tā), 她 (tā), and 它 (tā) are phonetically identical. Consequently, learners often experience L1 interference where they use 'he' or 'she' interchangeably in speech when 'they' would be the more natural or accurate choice.
For Japanese speakers
Japanese lacks the voiced dental fricative /ð/, so speakers substitute the voiced alveolar plosive /d/ or the voiced alveolar fricative /z/. This results in /ze/ or /de/ instead of /ðeɪ/.
Japanese is a pro-drop language where the subject is omitted if understood from context (ゼロ代名詞 zero-daimeishi). Consequently, speakers frequently omit 'they' in English sentences when the referent has already been established in the discourse.
Last updated May 2, 2026