Why is there no gender-neutral pronoun for a single person in the English language?

Question

I get tired of using "he/she" or "him/her" when I'm writing about a single ambiguous person. We can use "they" or "them" when we're talking about groups of people, but we really need a gender-neutral pronoun for a single person! And we can't say "it" without being insulting.

Anyone know why we don't have a word that means "he/she"? It'd be really handy if we did! What word could we use? Any ideas?

Answer 1

Great question!
Actually, there are many ways in English to address this question, but they are all considered nonstandard or awkward.

The pronoun "they" has been used as a gender-neutral singular pronoun for years and years now, and it's not going away. Grammarians will tell you that it's plural and therefore not appropriate to use for singular, but it's quite clear that people use it as a singular, too. (This is not all that different from the pronoun "you", which originally started as a plural pronoun but is now used as singular, too.)

The traditional way to solve this problem is using "he", but most people agree that this doesn't sound too gender-neutral. Some companies switch between "he" and "she" in different paragraphs.

"One" is always an option, too, although it comes across as overly stuffy and formal.

Or, you can simply avoid constructions that require a singular gender-neutral pronoun.

In conversation, and in most writing, "they" is the most acceptable option. But if you're writing for a real stickler, use "one" or just avoid.

Answer 2

No, it's not acceptable in formal settings. Sure, "their" is gender-neutral, but it's still plural! There's a difference between linguistic evolution and breaking the rules -- the site you're quoting doesn't seem to understand the difference. You can't press a plural into service just because there's no singular equivalent. "His or her" is fine, if cumbersome. I just try to rewrite sentences to avoid the problem whenever I can -- casting it in the plural to begin with is the easiest fix.

Answer 3

I think that "they" while not academically accepted has become a common way of referring to a single person of indeterminate gender. I think it is easier to wait for (and encourage) these natural language changes to become universally accepted than to try and invent a new terminology and get people to start using it. As others have pointed out people have tried inventing pronouns including ze, per, and ou. However none of these have caught on. Me, I'm waiting until the so called "singular they" is accepted before I publish any books.

Answer 4

We don't have a word that refers to he/she collectively because our language was created by sexist pig males--that is why we have "history." Using he/she only came about after the feminist revolution. In the past, whenever there was a reference to an ambiguous gender, one would just say "he." It would have been assumed that women weren't important enough to be included in the discussion. This is from when women didn't work or hold important positions in society. Now, however, when we use the pronoun "one" and refer to this person later in the sentence, we are stuck using he/she. Maybe a collective gender pronoun should be invented--it would make our writing flow much better.

Answer 5

It used to be "he." English originally followed the same concept as seen in the Greek "anthropos," which is a masculine word (linguistically), but which was also understood to apply to either gender. Unfortunately, people understood "he" to be exclusively male, and thus insensitive. The current trend is to use "she" as the gender-neutral pronoun. In all of my college text books "she" has replaced "he/she" and "he."

Answer 6

"He" used to be gender-neutral (as well as masculine), but some idiotic feminists got offended at it. So now we get the abomination of "singular they". //shudder

I say, let's switch to using Hungarian. Pronouns are few and far between to begin with (because you don't need them: the inflection of the rest of the words tells you exactly who is being referred to), and all of them are gender-neutral.

(And yes, "you" used to be plural, but it didn't jump directly from there to being singular. First, it was used as the formal singular pronoun, akin to German "Sie". Then English basically dropped use of the informal pronouns thee/thou, and hence the previously-formal "you" came to be used for everyone. So the case isn't really parallel to the current "singular they" sloppiness.)

Answer 7

Try them, they, etc.

"When my friend came, I asked them why they were late, they said their car broke down"

It can sound a bit forced, when we're not used to it we might be wondering "who's them?", but other times it sounds quite natural. After all, you can also be singular or plural.

In Farsi, the language of Iran, u (oo) means he or she. Their is no separate word for he and for she. Never causes any problems - but they can be just as sexist as anyone else.

By the way "history" is an international word derived from Greek, where the "his-" part has no separate meaning, and certainly is nothing to do with English his/him.

Answer 8

Actually, a non-gender-specific way to refer to someone has been invented. It is "ze", "zer", and "mer". These are said to be used as a way to refer to people without specifying gender, refer to God, angels, and the possibility of extra-terrestrials is also mentioned as a good way to use these words. "Ze" is to replace "he" and "she", "zer" replaces "his" and "her", and "mer" replaces "him" and "her".

A good thing to note however, is that these are NOT really used by very many people. I just wanted to point out that they do exist and some people do use them, but these words are NOWHERE near becoming mainstream or common words in the English language.

Answer 9

Some languages in the world have already solved this problem, and their speakers don't seem to cause any fury when they talk about certain sensitive issues.

I'm sure we could come up with a word to replace "He/She" as long as we can get started by any influential person or movement.

My suggestion for the replacement: "VEE" for subjective, "VER" for objective, "VERSELF" for reflective, and "VIS" for possessive form.

"Whoever stole my soda, better speak up VERSELF, otherwise I'd go after VER and make VIS life miserable. By the way, I know who VEE is!" ..... (only my suggestion!)

Answer 10

People have been inventing and suggesting gender-neutral pronouns for over 100 years, but so far none have caught on. Sometimes you'll see s/he for instead of "he or she", but even that doesn't please everyone- critics have complained it's anti male since it feminizes "he" or that it's anti-female because it's based on "he".