What is a neopronoun?
While many languages have third-person pronouns without gender, English only has “they.” Some people oppose “they” for ideological reasons. Others want to explore pronouns beyond singular “they.”
Over many times and places, many people have created new third-person pronouns, which we will call “neopronouns.”
We don’t create new pronouns as often as we create new nouns or verbs, so many people struggle at first with neopronouns. However, the very existence of stories with neopronouns shows that neopronouns can be used with a little practice.
Some people might say that neopronouns aren’t real words because they aren’t in the dictionary, and because they aren’t real words, you shouldn’t use them. But the fact that these pronouns aren’t in the dictionary is irrelevant to whether or not you can use them in your writing. Dictionaries will always be slower than people’s creation of new words.
Examples of neopronouns
| Subject | Object | Possessive |
|---|---|---|
| æ | ær | ær |
| e | em | eir |
| ze | hir | hir |
| xe | xem | xyr |
| ou | ou | ou |
| per | per | per |
This table only shows a tiny subsection of possible neopronouns. There are many more, and you can also create your own.
