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> My pet peeve about using "they" is it seems to imply an undue politeness or superiority

I suppose it could be considered similar to Spanish and French where you have "you" (peers) and then formal "you" (authorities).




We used to have that in English with the formal "you" and informal "thou", but politeness lead to the near-exclusive use of "you" until "thou" became archaic. And now that it's archaic, people think it must have been formal. Funny little circular journey.


Same in German. The formal address is in plural. “Sie sind…”




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