Winter wolf bad skill description

Support
1

Hi.

"Freeze and place a Hunter’s Mark on the first enemy. deal 10 damage to them.
He hits only first enemy not few, so word “them” is wrong here

2

“Them” does not always mean plural.

3 Likes
3

When the gender is unknown people can replace a pronoun for they/them.

It does seem a bit misleading and could be reworded better to suit this game (such as “deal x damage, Freeze and place a Hunter’s Mark on the first enemy”) but writers have been using “them” when a gender isn’t specified rather than “he or she”.

In this card the text should technically say “deal damage to him or her” but in order to make it sound less clunky they chop out the ending and replace it with “them”.

Usually, and what’s taught in school, is that they/them is plural. But writers have been using it as singular for a long time even without the technical permission of grammar books.

At least that’s my understanding of it, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong (since I’m not an English major).

4

I believe “them” is also correct when it’s unknown whether the referent is singular or plural. Several troops are composed of more than one creature, and I believe there’s some regional variation as to whether groups are considered singular or plural. For example, the spiders in the Spider Swarm may be referred to as multiple spiders, or as a singular group of spiders.

5

“Them” has been in common use as a gender-neutral pronoun for a single person for hundreds of years; “him or her” is a monstrosity that sets my teeth on edge. The spell description seems perfectly clear to me.

1 Like
6

I get lots of compliments about my English but it’s not my native language and this is the first I hear about “them” being a perfectly acceptable pronoun for a single entity.
“His or her” might be a monstrosity but it’s one that probably lands better with everyone where English isn’t the native language.

1 Like
7

You can read a ton more about it here if you’re interested in the usage history (and there’s somewhat more lighthearted information here).

8

oh. sorry my bad
English is my. emm. fourth language :smiley: