It makes sense. And yet, Trent adds, when you’re close to someone, it’s natural to feel perturbed about their shift from ‘I’ to ‘we’: “While it doesn’t necessarily change the friendship, it can feel like you’re now less similar, and take away a sense of social validation for the way you’ve been living your life.” It’s worth mentioning this can work both ways: if a friend you’ve long known as part of a couple suddenly becomes an ‘I’, for instance after a divorce.

Sometimes, ‘we’ phrases might mirror an uneasy shift in how you and your friends socialise. Dana, for instance, has felt excluded when her friends socialise as couples, which, she believes, is because of her lack of a partner. “They’ll say, ‘We were hanging out with our friends,’ which tends to make me question why I am not included. It makes me wonder what place I now have in someone’s life.”

Alix*, 29, also struggles with this – in her close circle of school friends, only two out of 11 (Alix included) are single. For an upcoming group holiday, she received an unwelcome surprise when she realised ‘we’ meant her friends and all their partners, plus her. “I’m upset that [their partners joining] wasn’t even discussed between us – it was a given,” says Alix.

“I’m single and my coupled-up friends have all become ‘we’. Why do I feel like I’m being left behind?”