Look forward to seeing you around the site in future.

It’s funny, I’m an attorney and in all the legal documents, we use “he” and “him.”

Then, at the end of the document, we have a standard clause that reads, “Use of the masculine gender herein shall be deemed to include the feminine gender and use of the singular shall also include the plural, whenever the context herein so requires.”

Haha. Reading that now, it sounds funny, but that’s how we do it. So we use “he” and then qualify it, but I understand you can’t do that in “normal” writing.

I will check out more of your articles here. I enjoy this site.

Thanks.

And I can’t really imagine Americans saying ‘one’ either.

>>> I agree that there isn’t an elegant solution to the problem. ‘One’ was pretty good, but one can’t use it these days without sounding like Prince Charles. <<<

Haha. That's funny.

I never thought of it, but using the term "One" was never really popular in America, but I could see how it would be in England. The only reason I left my initial comment was that I enjoyed your article and love your writing style. but found the "s/he" term to be awkward.

Yes, some people do that here in America too, but mot everyone does and I don't like to do it. It's a pet peeve of mine. You are right that language changes with society, but I have resisted this change.

By the way, I'm in New York.

Happy writing.

Dominick J. Fontana

“the English language… lacks a gender-neutral pronoun for a person” – no, it doesn’t. The gender-neutral pronoun is ‘one’, but it’s fallen out of use and now sounds old-fashioned (like the use of ‘he’ for both genders).

I agree that there isn’t an elegant solution to the problem. ‘One’ was pretty good, but one can’t use it these days without sounding like Prince Charles.

No, I’m not American, but I’ve checked with some American friends who tell me the situation is basically the same in their part of the States. Maybe not in yours.

I don’t know; maybe you’re not American, but it’s basically common knowledge in America that everyone was taught that way from grammar school on. When the gender is unknown, the masculine pronoun is used to refer to both genders. So using “he” refers to both he and she. There’s no need to awkwardly write them both out, beacuse it’s inferred.

If you’re doing it to be politically incorrect, that’s another matter, but it’s grammatically unnecessary.

Thank you.

Dominick J. Fontana

And also remember that success is not by chance, it’s by choice so better choose to be a success!