Gender-Neutral Pronouns

[Astral Sun]

I wish the English language could have a gender-neutral pronoun that applies to humans. "He or she", "his or her", etc. all sound awkward, and a lot of people resort to saying "them" in reference to one person, which bugs me.  

[abarrach]

Yeah, let's make up a new word. I propose "phe". Or we could use "it".  

[ChibiStarlet]

Good point. Pretty much all of the ways to make pronouns PC annoy me. One, s/he, plurals, the whole deal... The one that irks me the most is when people try to use both pronouns within the same paragraph to express that it could be either pronoun. Like, "If a student forgets his homework, he gets a zero for the day. If she were to remember it the next day, she would get half credit." I have seen this in legitimate, academic writing, and it seems so *wrong.*

Any other [least] favorites out there?  

[D a n g i o]

I say we should change "seventeen" into "sawanteen". Huh? What do you say ?! scream  

[[Joan De Arc]]

Learn Spanish.
They truly do use "it" a lot.  

[ramforce]

Well, Spanish is not so easy when it come to nouns and pronouns. You’d be surprised.
(Yeah, Spanish is my mother language).  

[LexiHulan]

Good point, you see, in Spanish (YES I'M SPANISH! stressed ), we have terrible grammar if you translate it in the English language, but the English sound much more proper because of the 'He' or the 'She' and it's because of that, that we are envied.

 

[l3viathan]

Yeah, it would be quite useful if there were a gender neutral noun in the English language. In Hungarian, when you talk about a person, you don't say he/his/him or she/hers/her, since it's all gender neutral. And because of that, my mom and relatives get he/his/him and she/hers/her accidentally mixed up in their speech so often. I'm the only one in my family who can speak English perfectly and without an accent since I were the first in my family to be born here.
 

[Lady Pica]

Trying to make things PC really bugs me, so I just make everything plural when I can. "When students forget their homework..." People are so touchy any more. stare  

[SilverBellsAbove]

Blagh. The English language can be a pain sometimes that way... French isn't much better.

Daaah. If we introduced a new pronoun, no one would remember it. Like -Swamp Sparrow-, I tend to pluralize things too.

wahmbulance Why must pronouns be my worst french grammar point? I suck at them! wahmbulance  

[Ame Yuki Kaze]

I believe in Jesus Christ, my Savior. If you do too, and aren't scared to admit it, then copy and paste this into your signature.

I agree. We absolutely need a gender non-specific pronoun. I think we should coin a word for use here in the guild.

If anyone can come up with something, nominate it!

 

[abarrach]

Yami no Hitokiri

I believe in Jesus Christ, my Savior. If you do too, and aren't scared to admit it, then copy and paste this into your signature.

I agree. We absolutely need a gender non-specific pronoun. I think we should coin a word for use here in the guild.

If anyone can come up with something, nominate it!

Like I said above : "phe". You still have "he" that is common to the masculine and the feminine pronouns, but it has it's own sound.  

[applecyder]

A(n odious) high school English teacher told my class that the gender neutral pronoun was 'ter.' I have no idea if he was telling the truth or being a smartass as usual.  

[Amphion]

applecyder

A(n odious) high school English teacher told my class that the gender neutral pronoun was 'ter.' I have no idea if he was telling the truth or being a smartass as usual.

Well they may have though so, but I've never heard it anywhere else before.

Personally, I see nothing wrong with just using 'they' for gender neutral. And since it's already taking over this function, we don't have to work really hard to change something.  

[Miradora]

The only problem with they as a gender-neutral pronoun is that it already has a plural meaning and I'm hoping for one that is specifically singular. For lack on any other alternative, when they doesn't sound right, I'm guilty of using s/he because I think it interrupts the flow of the writing the least. As I recollect from when I studied German seit funf und zwanzig yahre (apologies if that is only marginally correct) that language uses "man" translated as "one" for a gender-neutral singular pronoun. One can do that in English but it sounds ridiculously pedantic. This was the first time I've seen "phe". I like it! I vote for "phe."