| Subject | Object | Possessive Adjective | Possessive Pronoun | Reflexive | Number | Gender |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| THIRD PERSON | ||||||
| he | him | his | his | himself | singular | masculine |
| she | her | her | hers | herself | singular | feminine |
| it | it | its | its | itself | singular | neuter |
| they | them | their | theirs | themselves | plural | neutral |
Now we get to the really complicated section. The gender game. The use of third person personal pronouns in English forces the speaker/writer to consider the natural gender of the person they are referring to. Because English pronouns are so firmly associated with natural gender, the traditional use of masculine forms to express generic human identity is now felt to be unfortunate and ambiguous, if not sexist. What to do about the whole he and/or she problem? Clearly there is a problem here. All you have to do is try to tell a story about someone without revealing the persons gender and you will very quickly discover that there is no adequate commonly used solution. Try filling the blank in the following sentence: Every teacher must ensure that … can do first aid. Whether you put he or she, you seem to imply that teachers are all the same gender. Originally he/his would have been considered generic in the following: The applicant must demonstrate his ability to work independently, and how he would develop the unit if appointed to the position. However for many people, this use of he/his suggest that women are ineligible for the job. Alternatives for business writing: he or she The applicant must demonstrate his or her ability to work independently, and how he or she would develop the unit if appointed to the position. This spells out the fact that both sexes are in the mind of the person communicating, and that no discrimination is intended. Once or twice in a text it is alright, but it becomes cumbersome if used repeatedly. he/she The applicant must demonstrate his/her ability to work independently, and how he/she would develop the unit if appointed to the position. Both sexes are recognised as in section 1. The slash puts the alternatives more neatly, thought it’s rather impersonal. For some writers the lack of oral counterparts is a concern. s/he The applicant must demonstrate his/her ability to work independently, and how s/he would develop the unit if appointed to the position. This again is a neat way of showing that both sexes are included, thought something else is needed for him/her. he alternating with she throughout the text. The applicant must demonstrate his ability to work independently, and how she would develop the unit if appointed to the position. This is suggested by some as a way of being absolutely even-handed, but it is extremely disconcerting to the reader. It give the impression that two different identities are being referred to, when only one is intended. it The applicant must demonstrate its ability to work independently, and how it would develop the unit if appointed to the position. You can use it to refer to a baby-thought the child’s parents are unlikely to. The pronoun cannot be used very far up in the age range and is otherwise only used for animals. they The applicant must demonstrate their ability to work independently, and how they would develop the unit if appointed to the position. However this works better if the whole sentence is turned into a plural: Applicants must demonstrate their ability to work independently, and how they would develop the unit if appointed to the position. It is increasingly common to see they used in a singular case. But it still presents as sounding awkward or ungrammatical. you When you apply you must demonstrate your ability to work independently, and how you would develop the unit if appointed to the position. This creates a style which addresses the reader much more directly. Avoid pronouns altogether and rely on abstract nouns: The applicant must demonstrate an ability to work independently, and present plans for future development of the unit. This style is very impersonal and detached. Repeat the words which identify people, provided this is not too clumsy. The applicant must demonstrate an ability to work independently. The applicant’s plan for developing the unit should be submitted. Use a new gender free pronoun such as Co, E, hesh, tey, ther, thon and ey: The applicant must demonstrate eir ability to work independently, and how ey would develop the unit if appointed to the position. Cuts loose the sexist traditions embedded in English, but requires some explanation, and concerted effort to implement them. As a side note, it could be argued that the changes currently undergoing they are very similar to the ones that you went through 400 years ago, with a plural taking of the meaning of a singular use. That’s all well and good, but what about when telling a story? Lets try some of the different approaches. First, they, using a plural as a singular. Yesterday evening I was at the pub with a friend of mine, Blue, we were having a drink and generally catching up. We were both drinking our usual, a barcardi and coke for me, and a VB for them. Blue had been waiting for a while by the time I arrived, such that whilst I hadn’t yet finished my first drink they was finishing their third. They downed the dregs of their beer and with an “I’ve gotta piss”, headed towards the toilets. So there I was all by myself, in a pub full of possibilities. I scanned the room, neatly cataloguing the other patrons: ‘not my type’, ‘not if you paid me’, ‘cute but brainless’, ‘cute from afar but far from cute’. There were three that fell into the ‘sex as long as I didn’t have to take to them’ box. But that wasn’t what I was looking for that night so I just sat there and sipped my drink. It was at this point that the person standing by the bar turned around and looked in my direction. They was cute, drop dead gorgeous and they was walking towards me. “Hi.” So calling on all of my wit and charm I came up with the perfect reply and said, “shup a lop da.” To which they actually smiled. “I mean, I’m Jan.” “Max,” they replied. “I know this is really forward, but I’ve gotta go and meet some friends in a few minutes, so would you mind if we skipped the chit chat and just kissed?” I blinked. Then reached my left hand behind their neck and pulled us together. It doesn’t flow all that well, and the mixing of a plural form with singular feels clunky, this could be fixed by replacing “they was” with “they were”, but that would only add to the confusion as to how many people are actually in the scene. Second, one. Yesterday evening I was at the pub with a friend of mine, Blue, we were having a drink and generally catching up. We were both drinking our usual, a barcardi and coke for me, and a VB for one. Blue had been waiting for a while by the time I arrived, such that whilst I hadn’t yet finished my first drink one was finishing one’s third. One downed the dregs of one’s beer and with an “I’ve gotta piss”, headed towards the toilets. So there I was all by myself, in a pub full of possibilities. I scanned the room, neatly cataloguing the other patrons: ‘not my type’, ‘not if you paid me’, ‘cute but brainless’, ‘cute from afar but far from cute’. There were three that fell into the ‘sex as long as I didn’t have to take to him’ box. But that wasn’t what I was looking for that night so I just sat there and sipped my drink. It was at this point that the person standing by the bar turned around and looked in my direction. One was cute, drop dead gorgeous and one was walking towards me. “Hi.” So calling on all of my wit and charm I came up with the perfect reply and said, “shup a lop da.” To which one actually smiled. “I mean, I’m Jan.” “Max,” one replied. “I know this is really forward, but I’ve gotta go and meet some friends in a few minutes, so would you mind if we skipped the chit chat and just kissed?” I blinked. Then reached my left hand behind one’s neck and pulled us together. Okay, this just plain sounds wierd, and overly formal which really clashes with the common nature of the dialogue. Third, he/she. Yesterday evening I was at the pub with a friend of mine, Blue, we were having a drink and generally catching up. We were both drinking our usual, a barcardi and coke for me, and a VB for him/her. Blue had been waiting for a while by the time I arrived, such that whilst I hadn’t yet finished my first drink he/she was finishing his/her third. He/she downed the dregs of his/her beer and with an “I’ve gotta piss”, headed towards the toilets. So there I was all by myself, in a pub full of possibilities. I scanned the room, neatly cataloguing the other patrons: ‘not my type’, ‘not if you paid me’, ‘cute but brainless’, ‘cute from afar but far from cute’. There were three that fell into the ‘sex as long as I didn’t have to take to him’ box. But that wasn’t what I was looking for that night so I just sat there and sipped my drink. It was at this point that the person standing by the bar turned around and looked in my direction. He/she was cute, drop dead gorgeous and he/she was walking towards me. “Hi.” So calling on all of my wit and charm I came up with the perfect reply and said, “shup a lop da.” To which he/she actually smiled. “I mean, I’m Jan.” “Max,” he/she replied. “I know this is really forward, but I’ve gotta go and meet some friends in a few minutes, so would you mind if we skipped the chit chat and just kissed?” I blinked. Then reached my left hand behind his/her neck and pulled us together. There’s a good way to break up the telling of a story, and still has sexist problems because most people would put the he first. This option also depersonalises the story. Fourth, it. Yesterday evening I was at the pub with a friend of mine, Blue, we were having a drink and generally catching up. We were both drinking our usual, a barcardi and coke for me, and a VB for it. Blue had been waiting for a while by the time I arrived, such that whilst I hadn’t yet finished my first drink it was finishing its third. It downed the dregs of its beer and with an “I’ve gotta piss”, headed towards the toilets. So there I was all by myself, in a pub full of possibilities. I scanned the room, neatly cataloguing the other patrons: ‘not my type’, ‘not if you paid me’, ‘cute but brainless’, ‘cute from afar but far from cute’. There were three that fell into the ‘sex as long as I didn’t have to take to him’ box. But that wasn’t what I was looking for that night so I just sat there and sipped my drink. It was at this point that the person standing by the bar turned around and looked in my direction. It was cute, drop dead gorgeous and it was walking towards me. “Hi.” So calling on all of my wit and charm I came up with the perfect reply and said, “shup a lop da.” To which it actually smiled. “I mean, I’m Jan.” “Max,” it replied. “I know this is really forward, but I’ve gotta go and meet some friends in a few minutes, so would you mind if we skipped the chit chat and just kissed?” I blinked. Then reached my left hand behind its neck and pulled us together. Again, it doesn’t sound like I’m actually talking about people. Fifth, use a gender-neutral pronoun,like ey. Yesterday evening I was at the pub with a friend of mine, Blue, we were having a drink and generally catching up. We were both drinking our usual, a barcardi and coke for me, and a VB for em. Blue had been waiting for a while by the time I arrived, such that whilst I hadn’t yet finished my first drink ey was finishing eir third. Ey downed the dregs of eir beer and with an “I’ve gotta piss”, headed towards the toilets. So there I was all by myself, in a pub full of possibilities. I scanned the room, neatly cataloguing the other patrons: ‘not my type’, ‘not if you paid me’, ‘cute but brainless’, ‘cute from afar but far from cute’. There were three that fell into the ‘sex as long as I didn’t have to take to him’ box. But that wasn’t what I was looking for that night so I just sat there and sipped my drink. It was at this point that the person standing by the bar turned around and looked in my direction. Ey was cute, drop dead gorgeous and ey was walking towards me. “Hi.” So calling on all of my wit and charm I came up with the perfect reply and said, “shup a lop da.” To which ey actually smiled. “I mean, I’m Jan.” “Max,” ey replied. “I know this is really forward, but I’ve gotta go and meet some friends in a few minutes, so would you mind if we skipped the chit chat and just kissed?” I blinked. Then reached my left hand behind eir neck and pulled us together. Okay, it looks strange, very strange. Takes a bit of getting used to, but once over that problem there isn’t anything much else wrong with it. So what do you think the genders of my little story actually are… does it really matter? The next big question is if your going to use gender neutral pronouns, which ones should you use. This is a big problem. There are a lot of options to chose from, every author that’s ever tried to deal with this seems to have invented there own answer. However I’m not going to try to list all the options, that has been done before, but others more informed than me. If you interested in more information about Gender-neutral pronouns, check out: Gender-neutral pronoun FAQ
| Subject | Object | Possessive Adjective | Possessive Pronoun | Reflexive | Number | Gender |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| THIRD PERSON | ||||||
| they | them | their | theirs | themselves | singular | neutral |
| one | one | one’s | one’s | oneself | singular | neutral |
| he/she | him/her | his/her | his/hers | himself/herself | singular | neutral |
| it | it | its | its | itself | singular | neuter |
| ey | em | eir | eirs | eirself | singular | neutral |
Also see: Part Zero - The problem with the English language is you! Part One - First person pronouns Part Two - Second person pronouns Part Four - Miscellaneous, Conclusion and References