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I am not an American. I think it is in America where they invented the idea of singular they. You don't know the gender of someone, you refer to him/her as they. I am thinking if I should use the verb alone or verb + s/es after a singular they.

An example to highlight my idea.

Someone named Ekadh close voted my question. They think/thinks my question is off-topic.

Should I use think/thinks here? I know Ekadh is a person, one person, whose gender I don't know.

Laurel
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Gary 2
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1 Answers1

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Correct: They think

'They think' is in the simple present tense. We do not add 's' or 'es' to the verb if the subject is 'singular they'.

'They' always takes a plural verb.

Someone is standing at the door, aren't they? In this sentence 'is' agrees with 'someone' and 'are' agrees with 'they'. But 'they' refers to someone.

We use 'they' when we don't know whether a person is male or female.

Mohammad Farukh Ahmad
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