2009 07 They

They

“They” is an interesting word. It is the nominative plural of “he”, “she” or “it”. It is also the possessive of “their” or “theirs”. And it is the objective “them”. Now I’m not a super-grammarian. So I want to treat the word “they” in contexts colloquial, political and possibly even religious.
“They ought to pass a law against that”. Around the dinner table growing up, my mother would often cite that phrase when she didn’t like what someone else was doing. As it turns out mother, they must have listened to you. Since I first heard you utter that comment in the mid 1950’s our legislative branches have passed perhaps two thousand laws a year. So we have a hundred thousand laws as a result of “they”!

They will
They won’t
They should
They shouldn’t

They could
They couldn’t
They did
They didn’t

They are
They aren’t
They were
They weren’t

They have
They haven’t
They ought
They oughtn’t

If they
Wish
They would
They will

If they
Know
They could
They can

If they
Read
They think
They know

If they
Speak
They hope
They hear

If they
Act
They make
They do

If they
Love
They do
Us good.


©Frank Bliss All rights reserved
July, 2009