Quote:
Originally Posted by murraypaul
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.
|
As mentioned already in this thread, while "it" is grammatically correct in the pure sense, it is not in common usage. Common usage only uses it when referring to a thing, a plant, and sometimes an animal. So "Ban shook its head" would commonly be seen as making Ban not a person. Personally I would avoid it in that context.
For example, see wikipedia:
Quote:
|
"It" (including "its" and "itself") is the most common and only third person, singular English gender-neutral pronoun; however, it is used only as a dummy pronoun in various impersonal constructions and to refer to abstractions, places, inanimate objects or materials, and non-human life of low order or unknown gender. The plural of "it"—"they"— is already used in all cases as a plural gender-neutral pronoun. The word "it", however, has an extremely impersonal connotation, even offensive, in common usage and is rarely used in English to refer to an unspecified human being or person of unknown gender. This is because the word "it" connotes that the person being specified is inferior to a person or is an object.
|
While they are not authoritative, they do show the common understanding here.