Using He or She for an unknown gender

Question

I want to say: "A book is given to a learner. He/She should study his/her book that I gave him/her".

I don't know the gender of the learner. What can I use for subject and other parts?

Can I use only male ones? or both of them are required?

Regards, Mansooreh

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

I want to say: "A book is given to a learner. He/She should study his/her book that I gave him/her".

I don't know the gender of the learner. You gave someone a book but you don't know if the person is male or female?

What can I use for subject and other parts? Can I use only male ones? or both of them are required?

You can say 'He or she' , 'his or her', 'him or her'. However, that becomes cumbersome.

Better is this.

eg I gave a book to a learner. The person should study it.

eg I gave a book to a learner, who should study it.

Clive

Anonymous · Answer

Hi,

Thanks.

The actual sentence is:

Since searching is done semantically, it is possible to recognize the similar resources to what the learner needs, and announce it to him."

Would you mind helping me to change it?

So I don't know the learner gender.

It's hard to change all senteces so that when the gender is not known, no pronoun is used. isn't is?

Best wishes, Mansooreh

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Clive · Answer

Hi,

The actual sentence is:

Since searching is done semantically, it is possible to recognize the similar resources to what the learner needs, and announce it to him."

Would you mind helping me to change it?

So I don't know the learner gender.

It's hard to change all senteces so that when the gender is not known, no pronoun is used. isn't is?

There's really nothing wrong with simply saying 'him' in such a context. Nobody will think 'Oh, he is just talking about men, not women'. If you want to, you could say 'the person' instead of 'him'.

Another approach is to use the plural rather than the singular.

eg . . . . the learners need, and announce it to them.

Your sentence has other problems in the parts I have underlined above. I suggest this.

Since searching is done semantically, it is possible to recognize resources that will be useful to the learner and tell him about them.

Best wishes, Clive

Anonymous · Answer

Hi,
Thank you so much.
Before sentence "Since searching is done semantically, it is possible to recognize the similar resources to what the learner needs, and announce it to him." I wrote that if searching is done not semantically, agents can find only the exact resource that the learner is looking for.
Suppose you're looking for a red pen. By searching not semantically, only pens can be found for you. But if searching is semantically, based on the meaning of words, red pens, red pencils, pink pens and etc can be found for you.
The word "similar" is important for me to use in sentence.
Any idea?

Best wishes, Mansooreh

AlpheccaStars · Answer

AnonymousBefore sentence "Since searching is done semantically, it is possible to recognize the similar resources to what the learner needs, and announce it to him." I wrote that if searching is done not semantically, agents can find only the exact resource that the learner is looking for.

Mansooreh:
I am not sure what you are asking, but I will try to rephrase your sentences.

If searching is not based on semantics, the agents will only find exact matches to the learner's query. This could be overly restrictive. Semantic searching makes it possible for the agents to find relevant resources that better match what the learner needs, and present an expanded list to him.

Regards,
A-

s

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you so much.

Using He or She for an unknown gender

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