Things I abhor in the English language

[CelticConcourse]

There are a few things in our language that I particularly hate, but one of them is super-annoying.

There's no term for ambiguous gender; there's 'he' for males and 'she' for females, but what if I don't know which gender said person is? (Same goes for 'him' and 'her') So what really sucks is when I'm talking to someone and there's no way to refer to someone I don't know if I don't happen to know his/her gender. That's why lots of people seem to use the word 'they', which is actually plural. Since so many people use it, I guess it's morphed into our colloquial language and thus 'they' and 'their' can be used singularly.

Since I like to use proper grammar, this bugs me. In Spanish, there's 'usted' and I wish there was something like that in English.

At this rate, I'll be using 'it' any day now

[Lucky17]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender-neutral_pronoun#Modern_alternatives_to_gender-neutral_pronoun

[fairweatherfan]

You should try coming up with some kind of contraction that combines "she" "he" and "it" into a single-syllable word.

[Lucky17]

You should try coming up with some kind of contraction that combines "she" "he" and "it" into a single-syllable word.

Not falling for that one.

[Celtics18]

You should try coming up with some kind of contraction that combines "she" "he" and "it" into a single-syllable word.

Hesht?

[Celtics4ever]

There's no term for ambiguous gender; there's 'he' for males and 'she' for females, but what if I don't know which gender said person is

We use "it" for this one.  Seriously, how often does this happen?  Do you live in a David Bowie fan camp from the 70's?

[csfansince60s]

You should try coming up with some kind of contraction that combines "she" "he" and "it" into a single-syllable word.

Hesht?

Reminds me of an old tongue-twister:

"Who slit the sheet? The sheet is slit. Whoever slit the sheet is a good sheet slitter."

Try that 5 times fast.

[Boris Badenov]

There's no term for ambiguous gender; there's 'he' for males and 'she' for females, but what if I don't know which gender said person is

We use "it" for this one.  Seriously, how often does this happen?  Do you live in a David Bowie fan camp from the 70's?

I think it's pretty common, actually. You seem to have in mind a specific person, but the ambiguity arises quite easily when one is talking about a generic person.

For example, "If a driver gets pulled over without [his/her] license, [he/she] must pay a fine." I think that's the vexing situation for many writers.

One can almost always write a way around it. E.g., "A driver who gets pulled over without a license must pay a fine." But CelticConcourse is right, it'd be easier if we had a gender-neutral personal pronoun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_in_English

[KGs Knee]

This person

That person

You

[KGs Knee]

There's no term for ambiguous gender; there's 'he' for males and 'she' for females, but what if I don't know which gender said person is

We use "it" for this one.  Seriously, how often does this happen?  Do you live in a David Bowie fan camp from the 70's?

I think it's pretty common, actually. You seem to have in mind a specific person, but the ambiguity arises quite easily when one is talking about a generic person.

For example, "If a driver gets pulled over without [his/her] license, [he/she] must pay a fine." I think that's the vexing situation for many writers.

One can almost always write a way around it. E.g., "A driver who gets pulled over without a license must pay a fine." But CelticConcourse is right, it'd be easier if we had a gender-neutral personal pronoun.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gender_in_English

Ok, I see what issue your getting at, and the one I assume CC was as well.

I think the whole point of the English language is to be verbose.  It was designed to force this type of wording.

[CelticConcourse]

Boris got at my point. I always run into this problem and it's so annoying.

[CelticConcourse]

The thing is, if I used 'e', 'em', and 'eir', it wouldn't be socially acceptable and likely never will unless it's taught in schools. Even then, its transition into colloquial speech could take centuries.

So probably never.

[Redz]

Hmmm CC, I wasn't by chance the one who set you over the edge was I?

 

I've said this a number of times, but I don't think either of those guys wanted to play for a mediocre Celtics team missing their best player.

Birdman and K-Mart ended up playing big roles for contenders because that's where they wanted to go.

Objection. K-Mart did not specifically WANTED to go to New York. K-Mart just WANTED a team to hire him and get a job. He's doing a good job now. Not sure about Birdman, but I suspect the similar reason.

Both players held out for a while and then just happened to join the two best teams in the Eastern Conference.  Either all of the other teams in the league foolishly chose not to hire them, or K-Mart and Birdman were waiting to get a spot on two of the best teams in the league.

The Knicks are not one of the top 2 teams in the league.

he/she said conference, not league

(S)he said league the second time which probably threw guava off

[CelticConcourse]

Hmmm CC, I wasn't by chance the one who set you over the edge was I?

 

I've said this a number of times, but I don't think either of those guys wanted to play for a mediocre Celtics team missing their best player.

Birdman and K-Mart ended up playing big roles for contenders because that's where they wanted to go.

Objection. K-Mart did not specifically WANTED to go to New York. K-Mart just WANTED a team to hire him and get a job. He's doing a good job now. Not sure about Birdman, but I suspect the similar reason.

Both players held out for a while and then just happened to join the two best teams in the Eastern Conference.  Either all of the other teams in the league foolishly chose not to hire them, or K-Mart and Birdman were waiting to get a spot on two of the best teams in the league.

The Knicks are not one of the top 2 teams in the league.

he/she said conference, not league

(S)he said league the second time which probably threw guava off

Nope

I actually have a huge list of CBF thread-topics in my head that I'm just waiting to post about, but I don't like starting threads with one-liners and they take time to write.

I'll make them sooner or later... this was one of them. I actually had another grievance but I forget what it was   

[Lucky17]

One can almost always write a way around it. E.g., "A driver who gets pulled over without a license must pay a fine."

Yep. Just write around it.