Problematic pronouns for English learners. Gender neutrality for writing and speaking 

Congratulations again, Karlotta! I'm so glad you found my course helpful. You're a great student!

Glad it was helpful!

I appreciate that!

Lei is a neutral formal way to be address people formally . Lei include both genders like usted in Spanish and vous in French.

Will do 👍

I use he or she in my native language all the time. They/ them can be confusing, as the pronoun “they” is plural. Ladies and gentlemen is much better than in many languages which the masculine is only used. English is a very neutral language with genders. Only pronouns are different. When you say “ My teacher is nice or my dog is eating a piece of meat”. We have no clue if your teacher is a woman or a man and the dog might be a female or male dog. Should we also use sentences like “ His male/ female boss is on a holiday. The pronoun its is for animals. It is a neuter pronoun. Animals can be male and female as well. We are making a big deal with genders in languages. His or her is fine because we include both genders. How about the neutral gender? They are some people who identify themselves either man nor woman. It is not a joke. Some people say “ I am neither a man nor a woman”. I am something in between.

Great! You're welcome 🙂

Yes. You will not be penalised.

That's right

No, I have never seen it used in that way. Unless the child identifies as neither male nor female.

@@tothepointenglishwithben. Thanks.

The subject-verb agreement rules don't change, even though "they" is being used as a singular pronoun.

@@tothepointenglishwithben. Thank you very much for your response!

@@tothepointenglishwithben. There is something which has always confused me, about using 'they' as a singular pronoun. Which sentence is grammatically correct? 'Do you teach a child English, or do they teach themself?' 'Do you teach a child English, or do they teach themselves?'

So, as far as I understand, we emphasize we are using they as a “singular pronoun” to clarify that we are referring to one person, just one. However we don’t use it as singular, grammatically.

My pleasure!

Good point. But he tends to use feminine pronouns with other generic nouns, too.

I think most people would use "it" for a cyborg. I think Yuval Noah Harari was emphasising how human-like cyborgs will be the future. You can refer to an unborn baby as "it" when the sex is unknown

Ok. Good luck 🙂