nain's personal pronouns
You may be wondering how to refer to me online.
1. If you know me personally, you can just ask me me directly. And I'll tell you. ✌️
2. If you don't know me personally, you may refer to me using gender-neutral pronouns:
This is a good practice in general where gender is unknown, ambiguous, or not relevant to convey.
In English, a widely used option is the singular 'they'.
They/them/their
"They" is a nominative plural pronoun of "he," "she" and "it." The phrase "They went shopping" could indicate that a group of people went shopping together. "They" can also be a nominative singular pronoun. As such, the same phrase "They went shopping" could indicate that a single person went shopping by themselves. Using "they" to refer to one person is grammatically correct. You can use "they" to mention a person of unknown gender or a person with "they/them/their" pronouns. Here are some examples:
- "Allison left their binder at home, so they're driving back to get it. Is it okay with you if I go with them?"
- "Did you have a chance to talk to the project manager? What did they say about the status of the project?
- "I'm having a great first day of work. I met Tristan, and they gave me a helpful tour of the office."
- [source]
A legitimate criticism of the pronoun "they" is its potential to create ambiguity in certain settings.
In some specific contexts, using "they" can lead to confusion between singular and plural references.
If you have an appetite for experimenting or an eager drive for clarity, you could try Spivak pronouns.
E/em/eir
"E/em/eir" is part of a set of pronouns called Spivak pronouns created by mathematician Michael Spivak. The pronouns were formed by eliminating the "th" from "they/them/theirs" pronouns. Some people use "ey" instead "e" for the pronoun in its subject form. People using these pronouns typically believe that this derivation is less vague than "they" but still easy to learn and distinct from traditional terms. Here are some examples of how to use these:
- "E loves camping, skiing and walking eir dog around the lake."
- "I gave em a copy of my resume and e said e would call me tomorrow."
- "We met in eir office to review last month's finance report."
- [source]
Tidbit:
Did you know, there's a popular Rust library called eyre.