Pronoun conundrum

BenCotto

If folk want to call themselves ‘they’ rather than ‘he’ or ‘she’ I have no issues. But this is the query: is it they likes gardening or they like gardening? 

Pete.8

I'd say the latter
I don't think one person can likes anything

Dovefromabove

Pete.8 said:

I'd say the latter
I don't think one person can likes anything

But that's the problem isn't it?  It should be he likes, she likes ... they like ... but that's when they is used as a plural ... when it's used as a singular pronoun does it take a plural form of the verb or not?

What the English language really needs is a new, non-gender specific, singular pronoun ... oh, hang on ... there is one ... it's 'it' isn't it?  

But that doesn't really suit does it?  It feels a bit pejorative ... 

Pete.8

All I remember is  
amo, amas, amat, amamus, amatis, amant and agricola

'They likes it' just doesn't sound right though. Why use the plural of like when speaking to a single person?
You wouldn't say 'do you likes it?' to a group of people either. So my vote is for singular like
'They like it' singular or plural sounds fine
So until everyone agrees with what new word should be used instead of they... God help us

B3

You could amalgamate she he and it. But that would be worse🤔

BlueBirder

We use 'they' in the singular form all the time, in casual spoken English. If we know that a chef cooked our meal, but we don't know name or gender, we'd say: 'They are a talented chef'. If we want to talk about the gardener who planted our favourite spring bulbs, we'd say 'They have good taste'. 

If you're referring to one person as they, because it's their preferred pronoun, you use it singular as we do often in regular speech

Topbird

@B3 - that made my tea splutter all over the place🤣

TheGreenMan

Lots of words to describe people. 

Many spring to mind. 

Using “they like” etc is not difficult. 

They are a tw*t/bigot/wazzock etc also easy. 

BenCotto

@TheGreenMan, I don’t think your comment is a resolution. As @BlueBirder says, in colloquial speech people often use they when talking about an individual but, I have to say, I am fairly certain I would reconfigure my sentence so as not to have this discordance. In your two examples I know I would say ‘that person is ...’ or ‘that gardener is ...’

I still think we are far from reaching a consensus here. You are taking to your brother about a mutual friend called Hilary who likes to be addressed as they. “I was talking to Hilary just now. They say/says that ....”  Which? The verb that sounds right or the verb which acknowledges it is one person not more than one? 

Bluebirder, you say in your second paragraph you would opt for “they says that” “as we do often in regular speech”. Do we?

KT53

Pete.8 said:

'They likes it' just doesn't sound right though.

I agree, but you hear it all the time around here, and it's been that way since long before non-binary folks appeared.  That's the West of England for you :-)

Ergates

This will probably get me cancelled, but there always used to be three acceptable singular pronouns, he, she and it, the last one used when you didn’t know or weren’t sure which applied. I’d really struggle to say ‘they says’ instead of they say, to indicate that I was referring to a singular person. Just bad grammar.
Can’t get round it by saying ‘one of them said’, that definitely sounds inappropriate. I’d just have to keep using their given name, which sounds strangely formal.