I was wondering, because I couldn’t find that information anywhere, which version would be correct.  Let’s suppose somebody is telling me about :-) their :-) friend. I don’t know anything about the gender of that friend yet and I want to know how old... and here’s the question:        (...) how old they are.     (...) how old they is.       It’s about one specific friend that I don’t know the gender of.  Of course I could ask: „How old is your friend?” Or „How old is he or she?” but I’d like to use Singular they if possible.  So, should I ask: "How old is they?" or "How old are they?"? Or maybe Singular they doesn’t work here?
There are many (duplicate) questions about the acceptance, popularity and history of singular they (and their, them and themself) around here, it even got a tag of its own. If I didn’t miss anything, however, the proper verb form hasn’t been questioned yet.  As we all know, English third person singular pronouns (it, she, he and one, +body), names (Alice, Bob, …) and nouns (student, teacher, …) demand the +(e)s suffix be added to the finite verb form in simple present, where some auxiliary verbs have a “special” form (is &lt; *bes / *ares and has &lt; *haves). All other subjects don’t, including plural third person pronoun they.  When the plural you replaced thou (with thee, thy / thine), the other marked verb form that had remained in English – i.e. suffix +(e)st or +t – vanished, too. The first and second persons only ever appear as pronouns (I, we; you), not names or nouns, so there was no strong inclination to keep the verbal inflection.  The second person precedent would suggest that singular they be used with uninflected verb forms which is how it’s usually encountered in the wild. Assuming that they someday replaces he and she (and maybe it) it would lead to disagreement with the words the pronoun stands in for:        Alice         goes to her   place  by herself.   Bob           goes to his   place  by himself.   Alice and Bob go   to their place  by themselves. – (common)   Alice and Bob go   to their places by themselves. – (separate)                  She  goes to her   place  by herself.   He   goes to his   place  by himself.   They go   to their place  by themselves.   They go   to their places by themselves.                  They ?goes to their place  by themself.   ditto   They  go   to their place  by themselves.   They  go   to their places by themselves.                  They ?go to their place  by ?themselves.   ditto   They  go to their place  by  themselves.   They  go to their places by  themselves.      So why doesn’t singular they afford s on present-tense verbs like all other third person singular subjects do?   I learned about singular they only long after I had been taught English as a second language in school. That’s why it’s still a conscious decision to use it and hence I could easily adapt to use s forms with it, but would that sound and look funny / strange / wrong to native speakers?
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