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Wed 1 Feb, 2006 08:31 pm
This may belong to a rant thread, but here goes:
Sometimes I get tired of writing "he or she." I know I could avoid it by rewording a sentence, but sometimes changing it may change the implication of the sentence a bit, and it gets tiring to reword every sentence that you want to indicate "he or she" in.
Some writers use "they" instead of "he or she," but it is conventionally a grammatical error since "they" is plural, and "she" and "he" are singular pronouns.
Has there been any attempt to make a word that is a the gender-neutral form of the pronouns she or he?
Just for fun: If you were to make your own word to indicate this gender-neutral pronoun, what would it be?
"Ou" used to mean "he", "she", or "it". I say we bring it back.
sometimes you can use "one" and "one's" instead of "he/she" "his/her" but it sounds a little quaint.
The German language also has a gender neutrum called "es" (3rd person singular) or "das" (relativpronom)
actually, "one" is mostly a euphemism for "I", so i was going to delete my post, but now it's too late.
She/he/it works, but the abbreviation/contraction tends to sound a bit coarse.
Stole that one from ehBeth, by the way.
Hehe, then make up your own gender-neutral pronoun yitwall
How about "seh"? she/he/seh
Tico, that reminds me of "My cousin Vinnie" where (what was the actors name??) he always said "Youzz"
CalamityJane wrote:Tico, that reminds me of "My cousin Vinnie" where (what was the actors name?? Joe Pesci) he always said "Youzz"
All the more reason to vote for mine. We are having a contest, right?
---
"What's a 'Yute'?"
Ah yes, Joe Pesci is his name - he was funny.
Quote:All the more reason to vote for mine.
Yeah, until hell freezes over!
Yute? Doesn't sound too good - I only know Jute or Jutta.
CalamityJane wrote:Yute? Doesn't sound too good - I only know Jute or Jutta.
Ahh, I know the source of your confusion ..... I misspelled the word. It's "Ute."
Quote:Vinny Gambini: It is possible that the two utes...
Judge Chamberlain Haller: ...Ah, the two what? Uh... uh, what was that word?
Vinny Gambini: Uh... what word?
Judge Chamberlain Haller: Two what?
Vinny Gambini: What?
Judge Chamberlain Haller: Uh... did you say "utes"?
Vinny Gambini: Yeah, two utes.
Judge Chamberlain Haller: What is a ute?
.....
Vinny Gambini: Oh, excuse me, Your Honor...
[exaggerated]
Vinny Gambini: two YOUTHS.
CalamityJane wrote:The German language also has a gender neutrum called "es" (3rd person singular) or "das" (relativpronom)
It's a start, certainly, but when the predicate of "es" needs to be modified to account for case (dative, accusative, etc.), it follows the conventions of the masculine rather than the feminine subject.
I thought 'one' was english's gender-neutral pronoun. Perhaps it's become, as yit suggests, a euphamism for 'I', but it, grammaticly, is gender-neutral.
Shapeless wrote:CalamityJane wrote:The German language also has a gender neutrum called "es" (3rd person singular) or "das" (relativpronom)
It's a start, certainly, but when the predicate of "es" needs to be modified to account for case (dative, accusative, etc.), it follows the conventions of the masculine rather than the feminine subject.
Right, for genitive and dative it will become "seiner" and "ihm" whereas
for accusative it remains "es".
Regardless, the neutrum is there
Ticomaya wrote:
Ahh, I know the source of your confusion ..... I misspelled the word. It's "Ute."
Quote:Vinny Gambini: It is possible that the two utes...
Judge Chamberlain Haller: ...Ah, the two what? Uh... uh, what was that word?
Vinny Gambini: Uh... what word?
Judge Chamberlain Haller: Two what?
Vinny Gambini: What?
Judge Chamberlain Haller: Uh... did you say "utes"?
Vinny Gambini: Yeah, two utes.
Judge Chamberlain Haller: What is a ute?
.....
Vinny Gambini: Oh, excuse me, Your Honor...
[exaggerated]
Vinny Gambini: two YOUTHS.
Yes Tico, that's the passage. Although I thought he pronounced it
as "youzz".
"Ute" is a German name (feminine)
Ahh yes, one. I don't think it's really a euphemism for I, and it is gender neutral.
But, how do I say one in terms of "him" or "her"? I used one a lot sometimes, but I keep getting annoyed because of this, and because it sounds weird at times.
For example, "one eats apple for lunch." It sounds as if the "one" is used as another word for "everyone" or what usually occurs... or maybe that's just how I used it much of the time...
I've seen it written (s)he--which works for a written form for the subject of a sentence, at least. Problem is you can only pronounce it as "she" as far as I can see. And it doesn't help for "him/her", though you could do "herm", which has sort of appropirate connotations of gender ambiguity. And "his/hers" doesn't combine well either.
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