Gender For Living Beings Hello! We use 'it' for any animal, bird or insect in English. But if you want to emphasize your attitude or emotional connection with some creature, what gender would you cho

Aud

Gender For Living Beings Hello! We use 'it' for any animal, bird or insect in English. But if you want to emphasize your attitude or emotional connection with some creature, what gender would you chose for them (if you don't know their gender)? Would a dragonfly be she or he? Thank you!

Jul 20, 2019 9:07 AM

Answers · 5

Hello Aud, great question. As you did in your question, you could always use the singular "they" as a pronoun for any being whose gender you are not sure of. For example, "The dragonfly circled my head so many times I began to think they were trying to tell me something." Or, you can choose to assign a gender according to the feeling you get from them. It's up to you. Hope that helps.

July 20, 2019

I got it, thank you Peter!

July 20, 2019

We normally only refer to gender when we know the animal and have generated some kind of affiliation with it. E.g. Owner's connection with a pet o a zookeeper's connection with a zoo animal.

July 20, 2019

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