「Someone left their phone.」がネイティブにとって100%自然な理由

Added: 2026-05-25

[00:00:13][laughter] [laughter] >> We're going to look at this in four logical steps. We'll look at the problem, the reason, the solution, and of course some example sentences. I want to try and shed some light on this really interesting area of English from a Scotsman's point of view.

[00:00:50]First, let's look at the problem.

[00:00:52]Someone left their phone on the train.

[00:00:59]Someone left their phone on the train.

[00:01:04]Sometimes in life there are things that we start to kind of take for granted.

[00:01:10]Hot water, a punctual train service, the support of our families. But, there's one more thing, language. When I say take for granted, I mean that most people don't give a great deal of thought about how their mother tongue is the way that it is.

[00:01:33]It's just always been there, and most people never really had to think about it. But, when someone from out with those parameters starts asking about it, then it can be really tough to explain.

[00:01:48]Even although it's your native language, you've never really thought about it from that particular perspective. So, I often find this if I have a question about the Japanese language and I just ask anybody, they're not a teacher, they're not a scholar, they're just a normal person, they find it really difficult to answer.

[00:02:09]So, that's uh another good example of it.

[00:02:22]Hey, what are you doing? What's going on? What's that terrible noise? Sounds like a man shouting.

[00:02:31]Should we go and see if he's all right?

[00:02:34]No, let's just stay here. But they might be injured or something.

[00:02:39]You think it might be a bunch of guys?

[00:02:43]No, it just sounded like one. Then why did you say they? I don't know.

[00:02:50]I just said it.

[00:02:52]But you said they might be injured. Yes, but I mean one person. That doesn't make any sense to me.

[00:03:01]It's just the way English speakers talk.

[00:03:04]Yeah, but I learned they is not for one person. Yes, but that's the way people speak. Why? I don't know.

[00:03:14]We just do. Okay, well, after all this tea we need to go to the bathroom. What do you mean we?

[00:03:24]I'm not going with you. But it doesn't make much sense when you look at it like this, but there are a few very good reasons why they is used in this manner.

[00:03:39]Let's find out more.

[00:03:44]As I touched on in the intro, we're talking about the grammatical pattern known as tansuke no they or singular they.

[00:03:54]It's when we use they, them, their to talk about just one person.

[00:04:04]Someone left their phone on the train.

[00:04:08]If a viewer of my channel has a question, they can ask me anytime.

[00:04:14]In both of those sentences, I'm talking about one person, someone or a viewer.

[00:04:21]But, I used the plural forms there and they.

[00:04:26]It's a very natural thing to do, but why do we do it? Well, one way of looking at it is that English needed a way to talk about a single person when the gender is unknown.

[00:04:41]The gender doesn't matter.

[00:04:44]The person is non-binary.

[00:04:48]That sounds like quite a woke way of thinking, but it wasn't always like that.

[00:04:54]Before they became standard, the default was he.

[00:05:02]Shocking stuff these days, yeah?

[00:05:05]Shocking.

[00:05:06]If a student has a question, he can ask.

[00:05:12]But, this excluded women and started sounding old-fashioned.

[00:05:18]So, they started using he or she or him or her.

[00:05:24]But, this sounded clunky, repetitive, and well, to be quite honest with you, downright annoying.

[00:05:34]Every customer should bring his or her receipt.

[00:05:39]But, over time, people naturally preferred the smoother version.

[00:05:45]Every customer should their receipt.

[00:05:49]Now, this is not the first time in the English language where we have used a plural word for a single person.

[00:05:57]Hundreds of years ago, you used to be used only in the plural form.

[00:06:05]Thou was for singular.

[00:06:07]You was for plural.

[00:06:11]You might have heard thou being used like this in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

[00:06:19]O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo?

[00:06:28]The same thing happened with singular they.

[00:06:32]It's been around for centuries, so it's not exactly like a new thing. It's seen regularly in the works of William Shakespeare, Geoffrey Chaucer, or Jane Austen.

[00:06:44]Nowadays, people might say something like, "Somebody forgot their umbrella."

[00:06:49]But back in the day, they would say something like this.

[00:06:56]To be sure, you knew no actual good of me, but nobody thinks of that when they fall in love.

[00:07:05]So, in this day and age, there are essentially two ways to use this grammatical pattern. Pattern one, unknown person singular. This is the most common and traditional pattern.

[00:07:18]Someone left their bag.

[00:07:22]Pattern two, used for a specific person.

[00:07:27]Alex said they'll be late.

[00:07:31]This is often used for non-binary people.

[00:07:35]But the real reason it has survived all this time is because it's natural, short, inclusive, and efficient. So, most people prefer to say "Everybody brought their lunch." instead of the clunkier "Everybody brought his or her lunch." It just flows so much more smoothly in a conversation.

[00:08:02]So, what's my advice to you, Japanese person trying to improve their English?

[00:08:09]At this point in the video, you probably have a pretty good grasp on the concept.

[00:08:16]But, let's take a look at it from a different angle just to make sure it really hits home. All right. First and foremost, let's talk about mental shortcuts.

[00:08:30]Most native English speakers don't clearly picture the person when they say "Somebody, someone, a friend of mine, a student, a customer."

[00:08:46]Words like these automatically trigger singular they.

[00:08:51]The person is often just a vague silhouette in our minds. So, English often reaches for they.

[00:09:01]How come? Well, because the English brain hasn't assigned male, female, age, identity uh yet. And that's why singular they feels nice and natural.

[00:09:16]Let's look at it like this. He, she, they. He, she, they. Someone called earlier.

[00:09:26]They didn't leave a message.

[00:09:29]We don't know who.

[00:09:32]It was my brother. He called earlier.

[00:09:37]We know exactly who it is. So, in that case, we use words like he or she.

[00:09:46]He, she, they.

[00:09:52]If somebody's constantly fishing for compliments, people eventually start seeing right through them. In this example, we're using them but talking about only one person.

[00:10:04]To be fishing for compliments means you're trying to make people give you compliments by saying something like, "Oh, I went to the hairdresser yesterday." You're fishing for compliments on your lovely new hairstyle. Or, like in this picture here, the obviously beautiful slim girl, she says, "Do I look fat in this?" She's obviously wanting people to say, "No, you look absolutely fantastic. You're perfect." She's fishing for compliments.

[00:10:34]What was that shouting match all about?

[00:10:36]>> A customer stormed out of the store after we told them their coupon had expired yesterday.

[00:10:44]Nah. If you have a a shouting match, it's basically you're having a big argument. This person's shouting, this person's shouting, it's a shouting match.

[00:10:57]And the other word that there was to storm out, or you can also say it to storm off, like when somebody gets really angry and they just like walk away really quickly. Maybe they bam, they slam the door. Um it's not a good thing, but some people storm off. Maybe if you're having a bit of an argument with your better half, and one of you just decides, "No, I've had enough." And they storm off.

[00:11:25]Ah, how childish.

[00:11:27]>> [laughter] >> A passenger started kicking up a fuss because their seat wouldn't recline properly during the flight. Again, we're using the plural "their" even though we're talking about one particular passenger.

[00:11:42]And to recline your seat means to put it back so that you can relax.

[00:11:47]And the other one there is an interesting one. When someone kicks up a fuss, they get angry, possibly start shouting, and make everyone else feel uncomfortable. I'm sure you've seen videos like that online. People getting kicking up a fuss and getting really upset, and sometimes the police have to come on the airplane and escort them off, and everybody claps. Yay! Bye-bye!

[00:12:17]When someone gets thrown in at the deep end at work, you find out pretty quickly how adaptable they are. To get thrown in at the deep end is actually a really common expression in English. It means to be put in a very difficult situation without training or practice. Now, it comes from the old-fashioned way of teaching kids how to swim. Just throw them in the river, and they'll either sink or swim. You can't really imagine people doing that these days, but it's how a lot of people learned how to swim.

[00:12:52]Someone in the meeting kept rambling and completely lost their train of thought halfway through. We're using "their" to talk about a single person again.

[00:13:04]Now, the verb "ramble" means to go on and on and on about something, often going completely off topic.

[00:13:14]And when you lose your train of thought, it means you forget what you were about to say.

[00:13:20]It's happening to me more and more the older I get. If you're looking for something else to watch, how about this one here? In this video, I'm talking about us and me meaning the same thing.

[00:13:31]Does that make sense? If you want to find out more, I'll see you over there.

[00:13:35]Let's go.