Personal Subject Pronouns & Grammatical Gender

In a previous entry, we explained that grammatical gender classification in Spanish follows the binary feminine/masculine distinction. When referring to ourselves and other people (but also animals and personified objects), the linguistic, grammatical distinction between feminine and masculine is extended to what we know as social gender, by which we identify people within the traditionally pre-established male/female binary.

This kind of identification typically relies on subconscious assumptions based on a person’s appearance or name. These assumptions are the result of our social environment, the ways in which we have been socialised, and the act of making such assumptions (even if correct) may be harmful. This is why, in English there is an increasing awareness about how sharing one’s personal pronouns of choice can help other people avoid these assumptions and respect everyone’s right to be identified accordingly. 

The traditional subject pronoun system in English is a clear example of how this works:

As you can see, in English, when we use the “third person”, that is, when we refer to other people in the singular form, we identify them as male (he) or female (she). However, it is becoming more and more common to use “they” with verbs in the singular third person form to avoid gender identification (or gendering) and/or to signify gender neutrality.

Let’s look at the equivalent of these pronouns in Spanish:

As explained in the table and the video, thanks to ongoing activism from various LGBTIAQ+ groups in many countries across the Spanish-speaking world, there are several emerging non-binary options to describe ourselves and also to refer to and address other people. While these emerging forms have not yet been formally accepted by linguistic authorities (such as the RAE o Real Academia Española – Royal Spanish Academy) and even resisted by some speakers of Spanish, they are increasingly used by youth and social media outlets to visibilise the identities and struggles of people wishing to identify themselves outside the cis heteronormative gender boundaries.

This type of language is typically referred to as “lenguaje inclusivo” (inclusive language), although some prefer the expression “lenguaje inclusivo no binario” (non-binary inclusive language) because they argue that ‘inclusive’ language can refer to the use of language to include a wide range of marginalised communitities. ^[1]

We explore this topic further in other entries.