Pronoun confusion

Sunny

Sunny

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Maryland
Lately, I've been noticing a lot of changes to the pronouns used in newspaper articles and other places. Due to the transgender movement, people seem to be avoiding using "he" and "she", or "his" and "her," and referring to everybody as "they." It's like there are no separate genders; we are all sort of in an "it" category.

Traditionally, this has always been done in the English language, when we don't know the gender we are referring to. Example: "Somebody left their wallet here. Can we find them?" Unless the wallet is pink and decorated with bunnies (and not always then!) we don't know the gender of the person.

But what I find confusing is a sentence like: "Chris said that they are coming to visit next week." Let's assume that I already know that Chris is a woman. She is single, not living with anyone, no children. So why "they?" How many people are coming?

I think using a plural pronoun when speaking about a single person is ridiculous. I don't know anyone who actually speaks like this; it seems to be politically correct newspaper/TV usage. So far, anyway. Any thoughts on this?
 

Unfortunately, English lacks a third person singular gender neutral pronoun other than "it," which indicates inanimate. A person is "he" or "she;" a dead body is "it." I suggest that we invent such a pronoun, and I have a candidate in mind.

We need something to say instead of "he" or "she" when we don't know, or don't want to specify, someone's sex. It should probably sound something like he and she if it's going to have any chance of coming into general use, and it needs to be as effortless to pronounce as are he and she. So, it should be a single syllable which starts with a consonant and ends with an "e," as do both he and she.

Going through the alphabet gives : be, ce, de, fe, ge, he, je, ke, le, me, ne, pe, re, se, te, ve, we, xe, ze.

But some of those already in use : be, he, me, and we.

And some sound like existing words : ce sounds like sea, fe sounds like fee, ge and je sound like gee, ke sounds like key, and so on.

What's left : de, re, ve, xe, ze

I propose "ze" or "zee" as a new pronoun. De, re, and ve are out because they require more movements of the lips, tongue, and jaw than either he, she, or ze (say "he she Ze, he she De, he she Re, he she Ve" a few times and notice what your mouth is doing). Xe is out because it sounds just like ze and the idea of a word beginning with x coming into constant use (how many times a day do you say "he") just sounds wrong somehow.
 
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Sunny said:
Lately, I've been noticing a lot of changes to the pronouns used in newspaper articles and other places. Due to the transgender movement, people seem to be avoiding using "he" and "she", or "his" and "her," and referring to everybody as "they." It's like there are no separate genders; we are all sort of in an "it" category.
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Yeah, that is what's happening. Not sure I have bought into it though. I call people what they seem to want to be called, he or she. Not they for the singular. I do know one transexual person, used to be a he and is now a she. She seems to like being called she, so I try to do it.

Not sure why this has be be such a big deal, but to some it seems to be.
 

raybar said:
Unfortunately, English lacks a third person singular gender neutral pronoun other than "it," which indicates inanimate. A person is "he" or "she;" a dead body is "it." I suggest that we invent such a pronoun, and I have a candidate in mind.

We need is something to say instead of "he" or "she" when we don't know, or don't want to specify, someone's sex. It should probably sound something like he and she if it's going to have any chance of coming into general use, and it needs to be as effortless to pronounce as are he and she. So, it should be a single syllable which starts with a consonant and ends with an "e," as do both he and she.

Going through the alphabet gives : be, ce, de, fe, ge, he, je, ke, le, me, ne, pe, re, se, te, ve, we, xe, ze.

But some of those already in use : be, he, me, and we.

And some sound like existing words : ce sounds like sea, fe sounds like fee, ge and je sound like gee, ke sounds like key, and so on.

What's left : de, re, ve, xe, ze

I propose "ze" or "zee" as a new pronoun. De, re, and ve are out because they require more movements of the lips, tongue, and jaw than either he, she, or ze (say "he she Ze, he she De, he she Re, he she Ve" a few times and notice what your mouth is doing). Xe is out because it sounds just like ze and the idea of a word beginning with x coming into constant use (how many times a day do you say "he") just sounds wrong somehow.
Click to expand...
I propose yada-yada. Where is yada-yada? 🙂
 
Sorry, I seem to have started two discussions on this. Could we just end this one, and continue the discussion in the thread "Pronoun confusion, no more he/she?"

Thanks.
 
This gets on my nerves. First I would use a pronoun a person wished. I would not, to be mean do otherwise.

But what if someone makes a mistake. Some people say their gender is "fluid" so now of coarse it's everyone's top priority to know how they want to be addressed that day. Hell no.

Some people de-transition.

Bottom line for me, It's not my priority. It's never happened to me but I worry about people possibly being hauled into HR or berated in the workplace setting because they made an error. And if it happened me, I'd probably do a total flip out at work. I've dealt with a lifetime of dealing with my abusive childhood. Nobody cared about that. Again, not my priority.
 
Sunny said:
Sorry, I seem to have started two discussions on this. Could we just end this one, and continue the discussion in the thread "Pronoun confusion, no more he/she?"

Thanks.
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Gender confusion? I'm waiting for the day when a mother is asked of the gender of her triplets and she answers: "One of each."
 
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