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nim_opet t1_itk1bcm wrote

Reply to comment by Sacred_Root in The way people speak in The Count of Monte Cristo. Can someone explain? by foxdna

What does non-binary have to do with distinction between singular and plural “you”?

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Sacred_Root t1_itk1l5g wrote

That's one of their reasonings for the non binary pronouns.

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nim_opet t1_itk5fzw wrote

No it isn’t. Gendered pronouns have nothing to do with 2nd person plural one.

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Sacred_Root t1_itkkc1m wrote

You misunderstood what I was saying and i have no invested interest in trying to explain it to you. Idgaf about the topic enough to care either way.

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Sacred_Root t1_itk1sd3 wrote

Identifying by they/them instead of he or she.

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nim_opet t1_itk5ixt wrote

None of that has anything to do with the polite version of “you”. Those are genders of third person personal pronouns. The “tu/vous” distinction is specifically about the 2nd person pronoun and how it changes in singular vs. plural. 2nd person pronoun is not gendered.

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Sacred_Root t1_itkjrkj wrote

Tell them that. Not me. You misunderstood what I was saying, anyway.

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Nice_Sun_7018 t1_itl66a0 wrote

I guess we all misunderstood you then lol. “They/them” is in use because English doesn’t have a gender-neutral singular pronoun. If we did, we would use it. Since we don’t, we use the plural gender-neutral term (and we have always done this when the gender of the singular subject is unknown, too, not just for non-binary people).

This, as others have tried to tell you, has nothing to do with a language having a formal versus non-formal word for “you” (which typically comes in both singular and plural forms).

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