There needs to be a non-gender specific singular pronoun (other than it) for describing a person so that in formal essays you dont have to keep writing "a person," amirite?

+412 There needs to be a non-gender specific singular pronoun (other than it) for describing a person so that in formal essays you dont have to keep writing "a person," amirite?

by Anonymous 13 years ago

i said other than it in the post, because you dont really refer to a person as it

by Anonymous 13 years ago

One may not know that one may describe generalities in this way.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

crap.. you're right :)

by Anonymous 13 years ago

There would still be use for a word like you said, for example: "So this person goes around the corner and then she/he stops"

by Anonymous 13 years ago

"One." As in, "One can go to the store without being alarmed in many Tennessean cities. One is not obligated to wear cat fur into these stores."

by Anonymous 13 years ago

I was just about to say that, One can always throw this word in whilst sounding formal and grammatically correct.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The literary standard is to just use 'he', but that's sexist so I agree, we do need a new pronoun.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

@568048: I wouldn't start any sentence in an essay with "so" but you're allowed to say "He/She goes around the corner and then he/she stops."

by Anonymous 13 years ago

You can say "they"

by Anonymous 13 years ago

"They" is used by just about everyone, however it's still not considered "correct" English, even though a few grammarians will tell you to go ahead and use it. I'm not especially offended by "he", I just think it's confusing because there are a lot of people who don't realize it can be used as a gender neutral term. Personally, I tend to use "he" in writing and "they" in speech.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

The way I've heard it - and could be completely wrong about this - is that using 'they' in such a context is perfectly acceptable as British English, but not as American English. The two versions have been separate for a fair little while now.

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Well I'm from Canada so I have no clue which rule we're supposed follow ;P

by Anonymous 13 years ago

whenever you write formal essays you're supposed to refer to someone as "one" as in "when reading this book, ONE may think that..."

by Anonymous 13 years ago

Just use "they". It's simpler and more normal

by Anonymous 13 years ago

"One" is the correct term to use. To follow up, you should say "he or she." My english teacher was really anal about this.

by Anonymous 13 years ago