He or She makes They.

Following the theme from last Friday, I thought I'd mention another quirk in my language.  In this case, actually, I just tend to be wrong.  Two things: a) singular/plural pronouns, and b) subject-verb agreement.

via.

Singular/Plural Pronouns.
I don't claim to be a grammarian, and by no means do I know all the writing rules, but I had always been told to make sure a sentence is consistent.  I listen for consistency.  I've noticed that many people, in an effort not to give away gender when being anonymous, replace the pronoun he/she with the singular they.  For example, "I know a person who once was in debt so much that they cut up all of their credit cards."

I didn't know it was a real thing, but there is a syntactical basis for it, as recorded in this generations online encyclopedia (Wikipedia).  It's correctness is debatable, but is recognizably used for indeterminate gender and indeterminate number.

From Wikipedia, an example of indeterminate number:

There's not a man I meet but doth salute me / As if I were their well-acquainted friend — Shakespeare, The Comedy of Errors, Act IV, Scene 3 (1594)

and indeterminate gender:

"It can't be true what the girls at the Rectory said, that her mother was an opera-dancer—""A person can't help their birth," Rosalind replied with great liberality. — Thackeray, Vanity Fair (1848)

There's a slew of other examples.  My conclusions is that if it's good enough for Shakespeare, it's good enough for me.  I won't feel guilty about being indeterminate with my "they" anymore.

Subject-verb agreement.
  I have often gotten in trouble with my subject verb agreement when I write.  I remember as a kid my teacher would circle the verb, then draw an arrow back to the subject to indicate that they don't match.  This problem still lurks in my writings and conversations.  Particularly singular and plural verbs.

I write many emails each week, and often I use "is" with a plural subject.  Not quite as bad as "they is goin' out fer dinner," but pretty close.   Mostly "Here is my vacation plans," where plans is the subject (here and there are never subjects).   "Where is the salt and pepper?"  Gotcha!  "Salt and pepper" here is a combined unit.  But how about this one?  "Here is my email address and phone number."  I think I say it wrong.

Grammar Book guidelines.

Rule 6
As a general rule, use a plural verb with two or more subjects when they are connected by and.
Example:A car and a bike are my means of transportation.

Here's another ambiguation/disambiguiation, depending on how you look at it:

Rule 15
Collective nouns such as team and staff may be either singular or plural depending on their use in the sentence.

Examples:The staff is in a meeting.  Staff is acting as a unit here.  The staff are in disagreement about the findings.  The staff are acting as separate individuals in this example.  The sentence would read even better as:  The staff members are in disagreement about the findings. 

Most of the time, I think it's just that I slap my verb into the sentence before I really know what I'm going to say.  So I'll just have to keep my ears open and think before I speak, then occasionally getting annoyed at myself when I find an inconsistency.

Is Blake and Ian coming?

Well, is they?

Of course they IS!  (Better watch out!)  Deerfield, NH Fair, 2012