News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
[dead]
Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by Guthur on Thursday April 01, 2021 @12:29AM (#26656699)
Yes, a common and accepted genderless pronoun.
Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by rcxdude on Thursday April 01, 2021 @07:01AM (#26658864)
It has been commonly used and accepted in the case of unknown or unspecified gender, though it is rapidly falling out of favour for that case. In part because I think it's quite hard to say that it's truly 'genderless', it's embedding a 'default' into the language which perhaps is undesirable.
Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by lanternfish on Thursday April 01, 2021 @01:02AM (#26656835)
When has 'he' ever been used in a genderless context?
Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by Johnny555 on Thursday April 01, 2021 @01:37AM (#26656995)
Apparently it started in the 18th century, so there's a lot of inertia to overcome to get people to change.

But she says it was from the 18th century onwards that people started using male pronouns when describing someone of a non-specific gender in writing and this marks the time when opinions on what pronouns should be used started to change.

"You might have a sentence like 'if a student comes to see the teacher, he must bring his homework', where he is supposed to refer generically to males and females," explains Dr Emma Moore.

https://www.bbc.com/news/newsbeat-49754930

Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by damau on Thursday April 01, 2021 @06:05AM (#26658525)
I have been learning Italian. Don’t slam me for this if it’s wrong I am a beginner. But there are a number of contexts in Italian to which lei (she) is used. One for polite and respectful use (such as a general in the army, regardless of gender) or if the person’s gender is unknown.

Just thought I’d throw that out there.

Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by manuelmoreale on Thursday April 01, 2021 @06:19AM (#26658605)
Very formal/polite way to refer to people yes. But in Italian we also have “voi” and its use can be traced back centuries before “lei” started to be used.
Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by pengaru on Thursday April 01, 2021 @01:49AM (#26657038)
Welcome to the English language.

It's technically correct to use He when the gender is unknown.

Provided by a sibling dead comment, see 2nd definition:

https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/he

Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by Doctor_Fegg on Thursday April 01, 2021 @03:52AM (#26657717)
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Be_a_Pilgrim is the first example that springs to mind.
[dead]
Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by BrandoElFollito on Thursday April 01, 2021 @02:22AM (#26657194)
Dominique (a non-gendered name) goes to school everyday. They take the bus.

Is this a proper English sentence?

(question from a non native speaker)

Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by mulmen on Thursday April 01, 2021 @02:49AM (#26657335)
As a native english speaker I consider that valid.

The possible confusion is the fact that “they” could be singular or plural. AKA “singular they” [1].

Your second sentence could be referring to some other group of people who are not Dominique who instead of going to school take the bus.

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singular_they

Re:Baltimore plant ruins 15M Johnson and Johnson coronavirus... by herewulf on Thursday April 01, 2021 @02:10AM (#26657139)
"They" is a plural pronoun. Obviously.