pronouns - Grammatical number agreement in a complex phrase using singular "they"

Answering another question, I used the following phrase:

Your reader is [...], but they are a busy person.

I have two difficulties here:

1. In the first phrase, a reader, being singular noun, certainly implies is;


2. In the second phrase, they, being a plural pronoun (regardless that it refers a single person), still requires are, but are implies the plural for busy persons which sounds awkward (a reader ⇆ persons);

Obviously, if I used "...but he is a busy person", everything works fine, but I'm trying to use a gender-agnostic form.

What is the proper number agreement here?

Answer

As found in Wikipedia, Singular They can be used for:

Indeterminate gender – when they refers to an individual person of unknown or unspecified sex, as in, for example, "One student failed their exam". This usage is known as epicene they.

Indeterminate number – when they has no definite antecedent, or can be interpreted as referring to either a singular or plural entity. This usage is also known as generic they. For example, in "Anyone who thinks they have been affected should contact their doctor", they and their are within the scope of the universal, distributive quantifier anyone,[1] and can be interpreted as referring to an unspecified individual or to people in general (notwithstanding the fact that "anyone" is strictly grammatically singular).

It further notes:

In some cases, they is used even when both the number and gender of the subject are known, but the identity of the person is generic, e.g. "If some guy beat me up, I'd leave them."

Though semantically singular or ambiguous, singular they remains morphologically and syntactically plural (e.g. it still takes plural forms of verbs).

To specifically answer the question posed:

Your reader is [...], but they are a busy person.

is correct. Even though your reader is singular, and when replaced by the singular they pronoun, they remains morphologically and syntactically plural and thus they are is appropriate.

You, of course, could bypass the whole issue, and say:

Your readers are [...]. but they are busy people.