Thread: Is it time English adopt a genderless pronoun?
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Old 07-28-2012, 05:52 PM   #74
murraypaul
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MichaelSullivan View Post
I'm actually writing a science fiction novel where there are no genders and I have huge problems with pronouns. I tried doing something like himer or shim and it just make the writing clunky. I have a situation where three people are talking and I want one of them to shake their head to indicate no. It's easy to do agreement..."Ban nodded." But what I can't use, "They shook their head" because that may mean multiple people responded negatively.

Having genderless versions of he/she his/hers would be wonderful.
he/she/it. His/hers/its
If Ban is genderless (that is, is definitely known not to have a gender, rather than being of unknown gender), then 'it' is the correct English pronoun.
Ban nodded its head. Ban shook its head.
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