Hello, the discussion today will be about pronoun usage – the correct way of using he/she/it/they : gender-specific/gender-neutral pronouns:
Using ‘he’ for something/someone that is ostensibly masculine, and ‘she’ for something/someone who is ostensibly feminine, is fine.
Ships, aircrafts, cars and vehicles in general are always feminine.
For animals, if their gender role doesn’t matter, feel free to use ‘it’.
Again, if the gender is obvious in that animal, or if the gender matters in your context, then use the gender pronoun.
For example, if an African elephant is obviously male – sweeping tusks, huge ears, larger sized – then it would be silly to call it an ‘it’ instead of a ‘he’. Of course, if you are only making a glancing reference to the elephant in question in your text, then ‘it’ is fine.
Same situation – a birthing sheep would never be an ‘it’. The sheep is giving birth. It is a female. Always use ‘she’ because here, obviously, gender matters.
Some animals are named differently for their male/female counterparts. If you use those names in daily usage, use he/she. Otherwise, go for ‘it’. For example – a female horse is obviously a mare, and the male is obviously a gelding or a stallion. You use those words when you refer to horses. So never use ‘it’ with mare or a stallion. When the words you use in your writing themselves segregate by gender, then your pronouns should also segregate by gender.
On other hand, even if there are gender-specific words for animals, if they are not used much then there’s no need to always apply gender-specific pronouns. A female cat is called a ‘queen’, and a male a ‘tomcat,’ but if you don’t use those words while referring to the cat, you don’t need to specifically use ‘he’ or ‘she’.
Babies can be ‘it’ - human or animal. Newborns and babies are essentially asexual. They don’t necessarily require specific pronouns. On the other hand, toddlers need to be ‘he’ or ‘she’.
Rule of thumb – if it has a name, then it should be referred by its gender (this rule applies to pets as well)
Objects, things, and non-living entities are ‘it’. Plants are it – because plants may have sexual components, but to all intents and purposes, they are asexual.
Never use an it with a person – apart from being incorrect grammar, using ‘it’ with an intelligent being means that you are basically relegating them into the role of an object, and that is extremely insulting.
‘They’ is technically for plural usage only, but in cases where the gender is unknown or uncertain – or when the person you are referring to does not identify with a single gender – then ‘they’ is acceptable.
Example – A friend of a friend is called Anderson. You don’t know if its the first name or the last, if it’s a guy or a girl. So you should use ‘they’ when referring to them; as in, “Hey, your friend Anderson – will they be coming soon?”
Using ‘they’ for uncertain singular has become an accepted standard since the 1970s.
0 Comments