You break up with her or them?

[Tae-Bbong-E]

I saw one conversation like this.

What?? You broke up with her?
Why do you do this all the time?
You date a girl for like 2 months and you break up with them.
I mean, are you ever gonna get married?

In this conversation, why is "them" used not "her"?

 

[GoesStation]

In very casual English, "them" can be an all-purpose singular neutral pronoun. The writer was probably thinking two ways: you break up with the girl the writer is thinking about, and you do it repeatedly, with a different girl each time. "Them" serves both purposes: it means "her" in the first and "all of them" in the second.

Don't emulate this usage.

 

[Charlie Bernstein]

. . . In this conversation, why is "them" used not "her"?

It's because the speaker has bad grammar.

 

[Tarheel]

Don't emulate this usage.

I agree with that. I can't figure out why the speaker uses "them" to refer to "a girl". It makes no sense to me.

 

[emsr2d2]

I'd use "her" in that context. If "a girl" was changed to "someone", "them" would work at the end because we don't necessarily know the sex of the "someone" in question.

 

[Tae-Bbong-E]

Thank all of you.

Hmm. do you think the best sentence is something like this?
You date a girl for like 2 months and you break up with her.

 

[tedmc]

Yes, but remove the "like".

 

[Tarheel]

Thank all of you.

Hmm. do you think the best sentence is something like this?
You date a girl for like two months and you break up with her.

Yes, that's fine. (The word " like" means "about" there.)

 

[tedmc]

Yes, that's fine. (The word " like" means "about" there.)

I know it is used a lot in spoken English these days but I think it is not appropriate in written English.

 

[jutfrank]

I know it is used a lot in spoken English these days but I think it is not appropriate in written English.

But this is not written English. It's very casual, informal speech, probably between close friends.