When ‘they’ means ‘he or she’

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In English, singular third person pronouns make a person’s gender explicit:
            If Mary calls, she can leave a message.
            If my brother calls, he may want to talk to me.
Sometimes, we don’t know if the person we are talking about is male or female. To include both possibilities, we may say ‘he or she’:
            If someone calls and I’m not here, he or she can leave a message.
He and she are singular pronouns, whereas they is the plural third person pronoun. However, we can use they to refer to just one person, to avoid saying ‘he or she’:
            If a customer calls and I’m not here, they can leave a message.



The same happens with other third person pronouns and possessives:
            If someone calls and they want to talk to me, tell them I’m busy.
            Only one student had done their homework.

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