Q&A: “So using “jibun” can work as a personal pronoun?”
anonymous said: hey i saw your post about how to say you’re NB in japanese and that’s super cool but i have a question. So using “jibun” can work as a personal pronoun? because i’ve seen it as such but i also thought it was closer to use it for the word “oneself” rather than a simpler “i” or “me”. Also it might mean “yourself” in kansai dialect or something? Could you expand on that if it’s not too much trouble? please and thanks ( re: this post ) 自分 (”jibun”) is a reflective pronoun that generally refers back to the person using it. how it translates into English is simply a matter of grammar (ie. what grammatical role it’s serving within a sentence). 例 / example: ※ 自分は別に納豆が嫌いなわけじゃないけどさ… JP： jibun wa betsu ni nattou ga kirai wake janai kedo sa… EN：it’s not like i particularly hate natto or anything, but… ※自分の誕生日さえも忘れちゃって、超恥ずかしい。…
Q&A: “Could a fairly feminine looking person get away with boku?”
anonymous said: actually I’ve been wondering for awhile what “I” word you use in Japanese, I’ve been learning Japanese and just wondering as far as queer communities in Japan if they ever step out of the (w)atashi is for girls/neutral and boku/ore is for boys thing. Could a fairly feminine looking person get away with boku? just wondering about what the situation actually is surrounding those words usage. i don’t use any particular set of first person pronouns ( i / me / my / mine) because i’m not comfortable using any of them. rather, i use various different pronouns or no pronoun at all depending on the register i’m speaking in, the situation i’m in, who i’m speaking to, how i’m feeling that particular day at that particular time, etc etc. thankfully Japanese is a very flexible language when it comes to pronouns in general and doesn’t even require usage of…
Q&A: “I was wondering about gender neutrality in other languages.”
buffintruda said: I was wondering about gender neutrality in other languages. What pronouns do you use in Esperanto? Does ili work the same as they in English? Could you create new pronouns like ni or something? And what about some nouns like patro and patrino? Would a word like gepatro make sense or would it be easier to ungender it completely and not ever use the ino suffix for feminist reasons as well as nb ones? And in Japanese how easy is it to go completely ungendered by others since it doesn’t use pronouns as much as English. I’ve heard that using different formality levels of ‘I’ can make you sound more feminine or masculine so how would you recommend a female perceived nb to get by? (3/3) re: Esperanto no, “ili” cannot be used as a singular, gender-neutral pronoun in Esperanto. trying to use “ili” in that way will only…
Q&A: “Is [singular they] used like “they are” or “they is”?”
mybooklover19 said: Hi Vesper! I have a doubt and I don’t have anyone to ask… As a non english speaker, no one ever told me how to use the singular “they”. Is this used like “they are” or “they is”? And what about other new pronouns? Anyway thank you for everything! hi there! singular ‘they’ is used in more or less the same way as plural ‘they’, so “they are” would be correct. for more information on how to use singular ‘they’, this post and my #singular they tag might be of help. as for other gender neutral third person pronouns, usage depends on the pronoun. many, but not all, can be used similar to how you’d use ‘he’ or ‘she’, ie. “xe is at home” or “ze loves cats.” if you’d like to see usage examples for these and / or other pronouns, check out the interactive app/site Xe or the Pronoun Dressing Room. 🙂
Q&A: “Are there any (commonly used?) gender neutral pronouns in Japanese like there are in English?”
anonymous said: Are there any (commonly used?) gender neutral pronouns in Japanese like there are in English? I love your blog btw, your posts about Japanese are fascinating 🙂 (see also: this post) ah, thank you! although at this point i feel the need to throw out a huge disclaimer. [image reads: i’m totally a non-fluent, non-native speaker of Japanese and as such, i might not even know wtf i’m talking about! :’D but thank you for asking anyway! – Vesper] anyway, i’m inclined to say no, there are no gender neutral pronouns in Japanese like there are in English. in English, “gender neutral pronouns” generally refers to third-person pronouns used by one person to refer to another person. in Japanese, third-person pronouns aren’t used anywhere near as frequently as in English and it’s relatively easy to avoid gendering a person without using actual third-person pronouns at all, making gender neutral third-person…
Q&A: “do they pronouns work like plural or singular?”
anonymous said: Hi sorry to bother you, english is not my first language and i always get confused, do they pronouns work like plural or singular? I mean talking about a nb person u say “they is very pretty” or “they are very pretty”? not a problem, anon. 🙂 even when ‘they’ is used to talk about a single person, it is still used in almost the exact same way as it would be used to talk about multiple people. in other words, it is grammatically plural. subjective: they are very pretty. objective: i hugged them. possessive determiner: their smile makes me happy. possessive pronoun: the choice is theirs. reflexive: they are proud of themself.* * the only difference is that the reflexive form of plural ‘they’ is ‘themselves’ (eg. ‘they are proud of themselves’). some people use ‘themselves’ even for singular ‘they’ when talking about a single person, but i prefer ‘themself’. hope this helps.
Q&A: “Do you know any non-binary pronouns besides they/them?”
anonymous said: I am pronoun-confused. Do you know any non-binary pronouns besides they/them? there are many, many gender neutral pronouns in the English language besides they / them / their. to throw out a few of them as examples: co / co / cos e(y) / em / eir ne / nem / nir ve / ver / vis xe / xem / xyr ze / hir / hir again, those are just a few. see list of gender neutral pronouns on Wiktionary.org for even more pronouns. there’s also more detailed information about the history and usage of various gender neutral pronouns in English (and other languages) on Nonbinary.org’s wiki. last but not least, there’s also the option of using no pronouns at all, which many people seem to forget is even an option. if knowing how to use certain pronouns is confusing or difficult for you, you may be interested in checking out…
Q&A not Q&A: “All the pronouns in Italian are female and masculine, “it” in Italian doesn’t exist…”
johncatwatson said: I have the same problem of the last ask. All the pronouns in Italian are female and masculine, “it” in Italian doesn’t exist. The only alternative I have is say words at masculine way. (re: this post) indeed, Italian does share linguistic problems with French when it comes to gender, although (as you’ve pointed out) unlike French, Italian doesn’t even have a commonly used pronoun for “it”, among other differences. i can only imagine how frustrating that must be. :/ i’m embarrassed to say that i studied Italian for two years in college but know / remember even less of it now than i do French…! nevertheless, i used what i remember to go digging and see what i could find about non-binary anything in Italian and was really disappointed. i don’t know if it’s just my poor language skills, but what i was able to find about non-binary people…
Q&A: “I really have a problem when I want to speak about neutral people in French.”
anonymous said: Hi. I really have a problem when I want to speak about neutral people in French. For the pronouns, there’s only a translation for ‘it’ or ‘that’ and that sounds weird. ‘They’ can only be masculine or feminine. A woman and a man, it becomes masculine. Misogynistic. The same for words and adjectives. You can only be a masculine or a feminine trans. You can’t be happy, you’re a happy girl or a happy boy. Articles, pronouns & adjectives are not neutral. So how can I speak about you for example? yeah… as a native English speaker who speaks only a smidgen of (vraiment un petit brin de) French, i can only imagine how much of a pain in the ass it must be to speak in a gender neutral way about someone… and as you’ve pointed out, there’s also a lot of patriarchy and misogyny build into…
Q&A: “I am having trouble with my gender, and am looking for some advice?”
anonymous said: I am having trouble with my gender, and am looking for some advice? I was AFAB, but was stuck in a disgustingly misogynistic environment from the time I was 9 (19 now) until just a few months ago. For the past several years, I’ve had a strong aversion to anything stereotypically seen as “female,” and experienced a lot of issues with the way my body is seen. I’ve tried using every other pronoun set and gender I can think of, and none of them make me feel any better. I don’t know what to do. if you don’t had any animosity or otherwise negative feelings towards your name, you could ask people to always refer to you by your name instead of pronouns. some people prefer to go by their name until they find a pronoun that feels right to them and others go by their name indefinitely,…
