Yes, "they" is used as a genderless pronoun when the gender is unknown. What's your first language? Your English seems good enough to be surprised you don't know this. Or maybe you're just the type of person who makes annoying nit-picky posts.
How is asking if you have more than one nitpicking?
This sounds nit-picky...
"They" is also used for a grouping. English is finicky like that.
J.C.
Because she wasn't asking if I had more than 1 bird, but rather more than 1 "Robin" because I kept referring to him as "they," which is a silly question that she already knew the answer to.
Is it? Oh, well thanks, I never learned that.
Not really, I was directly answering their question that wasn't asked in good faith. I'm bummed I'm losing my favorite bird and they decided to join the conversation with a post that amounts to "why are you using 'they' which is plural when referring to a singular bird? Do you have more than 1 Robin? I'm going to pretend I'm confused about your choice of words even though I know full well what you're communicating." I just find that kind of behavior obnoxious.
So, I guess this is now about some kind of posturing over a controversial social issue of today. Yes, I agree. xx=female and xy=male. However, I didn't know if Robin was xx or xy, so I referred to him as "they" instead of "he or she."
It's science. It shouldn't be controversial.
