antoniaannswiney
antoniaannswiney
19.03.2020 • 
English

Many languages have what some consider a significant limitation: they lack a gender-neutral third-person singular pronoun. When using a pronoun to refer to a person, speakers must either specify a gender or say something like "he or she." Not only can this be cumbersome, but it means that there is no good pronoun choice when a person's gender is unknown to the speaker. Sweden addressed this problem in 2015 by adding a new pronoun—hen—which refers to a person without specifying a male or female gender. Hen does not replace the Swedish pronouns han, meaning "he," or hon, meaning "she"; it simply adds another option. Thus, Swedes now have their choice of three, rather than two, singular pronouns for referencing individuals.

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