I want a new dog.” (direct speech)
They said they wanted a new dog. (1)(reported speech)
question: why (I) is changed to (they) while the speaker is single isn't it?
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Sign up to join this communityI want a new dog.” (direct speech)
They said they wanted a new dog. (1)(reported speech)
question: why (I) is changed to (they) while the speaker is single isn't it?
Because "they" has been used as a gender neutral singular pronoun since at least 1375.
There are people, still, who think there is something wrong with using it this way. For some reason, those people don't seem to have any problem using "you" as a singular. It's true that this goes back a bit further - recorded in the OED from 1250. Perhaps the people who object are stuck in the fourteenth century.