Home » Gender and Language » Mixing Up He and She in English as a Non-Native Speaker

Mixing Up He and She in English as a Non-Native Speaker

Sayed lives in Houston, Texas, but grew up in Pakistan speaking Urdu and Punjabi. As someone who began learning English two years ago, he finds that he often mixes up gendered pronouns. It’s not surprising that he would confuse he with she and him with her, however, since his native language doesn’t designate gendered pronouns at all. This is part of a complete episode.

https://soundcloud.com/waywordradio/1537-caller-sayed-gender-pronouns

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

1 comment

More from this show

Smarmy, A Winner of a Word?

According to Gobsmacked: The British Invasion of American English (Bookshop|Amazon) by Ben Yagoda, the word smarmy, meaning “unctuous” or “ingratiating,” may come from a 19th-century magazine contest, in which readers sent in...

Saying Oh for Zero

Mary Beth in Greenville, South Carolina, wonders: Why do we say four-oh-nine for the number 409 instead of four-zero-nine or four-aught-nine? What are the rules for saying either zero or oh or aught or ought to indicate that arithmetical symbol...

Recent posts