this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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Nonbinary

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Everyone is different. Some people who are non binary but lean/present as feminine might use feminine words, but others I’ve seen use the masculine because they think modifying the grammar is complicated.

I personally use the gender-neutral modified language, like using elle in Spanish.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I use feminine pronouns and masculine nouns usually! Sometimes vice versa, but can be more jarring for people, so it depends on the crowd.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 day ago (2 children)

I generally prefer neutral language (person, they/them, etc.), but I go through phases where I don't care if I get called he or she instead.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

same here I try to be as neutral as possible

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

That makes sense! I generally don’t care what I’m called (he or she), but I prefer neutral language. I used to hate (but not as much now) gendered terms such as “What’s up my man?” Or “This man”.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Yeah, I quite like "what's up my man?", but I'm not a fan of "this man".

I generally enjoy feminine stuff as well, simply because it's different, but I prefer neutral.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

For the languages I’m learning:

Spanish, I generally prefer terms like elle (they), amigue (friend, gender neutral), etc.

Similarly, elu with Portuguese

Dukaisms with Polish

And hen for Norwegian

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago

I’m fine with “my man” now :)

In 2021, I struggled with intense dysphoria which caused me to feel bad every time someone mentioned things like male parts, or gendered language.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 day ago (1 children)

In French, the plural they is the masculine ils for mixed gender groups, and only the feminine elles for groups that are exclusively feminine. On is a singular gender neutral form of they often used in situations with unknown gender.

I would use on for singular and ils for plural when talking about a non-binary person because that seems the most reasonable application of the language as I understand it.

However as a non-native speaker I would defer to whatever native speakers do. Can't say I know what the established best practice is.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Not a native speaker of French, but while "on" can be used as singular "they," it is much more often used to say "one," as in: "One could eat a meal." I think "iel" is better because it is distinctly a third person singular personal pronoun. Sure, it is not as well established, but it is in at least one big respected dictionary.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 day ago

As french learner, I'm curious. How do you go about making adjectives neutral?

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Spanish is my first language but nowadays I rarely use it, so I just stick to default stuff. If I still activity spoke Spanish everyday id probably make a effort to change up the grammar.