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English Pronouns / Words When Gender Is Unknown

Bruconero originally asked about which pronoun to use when you don't know the person's gender: Source 8 but I'm bringing it up here since it will probably be its' own topic in the end.

The best words to use is "they" Or "them" Since they both refer to both sexes.

Generally if its an object, not an actual person a lot of people will say "She" Just like when someone talks about their car: "She is a beauty!". Of course there is nothing wrong with using "It" Because a car is not a person, however never use "It" With people. I've read where people refer to children or babies as "It" And that's just weird specially when the baby's gender is known.

Unknown Gender Words Pronouns English

I have always wondered why people never say the right words for their sentences and I hated that. No matter what people say to me that this "Thing" Or some living thing is a "She" Or "he" I just choose the right word for this. Just like animals for instance, people always call them a she or a he but it is not so because that animal they are mentioning is not a human. So because it is not a human it should be called an "It" And not some other word that is not supposed to be there on that sentence. People never use the "It" For the sentence, they just want to be ignorant sometimes. But sometimes I am actually forced to put the wrong word even though it is not right according to English grammar.

Edited: Felipe on 23rd Jun, 2013 - 1:17pm

English Pronouns / Words When Gender Is Unknown UFO & Writing Art Education Sciences

Well, Felipe, grammar is not always the one we study at school: every language evolves during time and often, when a lot of people use some words in a particular way, that way of using them will become a rule even if maybe is not absolutely correct.

Getting back to the topic. I've always had this issue when writing in English (When talking not so much because spoken language is less formal). In English there are three genders but masculine and feminine are only used for people so, in the end, almost everything is neutral (Or it should be) like Felipe correctly pointed out. But when using collective names or generic words that refer to people without making the gender clear, which pronouns I have to use: the masculine or the feminine ones?
My confusion is made stronger by the way my own language works. In Italian there's no neutral so every word, people as well as things, is either masculine or feminine (We even have different articles for the two genders and so on). In case of an uncertain situation, we use the masculine.
So in my language would be like this: "The player has to choose an Avatar for the game: if HE wants, HE can choose a familiar too".
My question is: how is that in English? Is it: "The player has to choose an Avatar for the game: if SHE wants, SHE can choose a familiar too"?
Looks like yes, because I found that kind of construction in more than an occasion. But it really sounds weird to me.

Unknown Gender Words Pronouns English

Some people will say "he" To refer to anyone. Just how "Mankind" Is used for everyone but that is slowly begin dropped because feminist say he does not mean she and mankind does not include women. Anyway, it is a personal preference, but if you know the gender then it is proper to say either he or she as the case might be.

Unknown Gender Words Pronouns English

You can also use "One" But it is more tricky and you have to word your sentence for it. Using your example:

English Pronouns / Words When Gender Is Unknown

"One" Works with the example I made, but is difficult to use when instead of the "Player" Or another generic reference we have words like anybody, somebody or everybody. For Everybody, you can use "They" But for Anybody you not always can.
I think you know what I'm talking about, JB, because in Spanish and Portuguese is just the same: "El" Or "Ele", not "Ela". Or, even better, we already have the gender in the word "Player" That we can make both masculine or feminine depending on the case.

From what Krusten said, I get that both "He" Or "She" Can be used, as long as it is done far away from any feminist group (Laugh)
Anyway, thanks to both of you for your help.

English Pronouns / Words Gender Unknown

Bruconero, I hear you loud and clear. It is the same in Spanish, what I usually do is write he/she, although sometimes can be a little time consuming if you need to repeat yourself. What I confuse the most in English is the "him/her". I mean, I KNOW the difference and I KNOW what I want to say but a lot of times I say him instead of her and viceversa, I don't know why but I tend to make things masculine.

English Pronouns / Words Gender Unknown Sciences Education Art Writing & UFO

Me too. I tend to use masculine in every situation, mainly because I'm used to do it in my language. The problem is that, lacking an extensive use of the two genders in its grammar, English has way more undefined situations than my own language. In Italian yo may have doubts when dealing with words like "Anybody" Or "Somebody" But otherwise you always know from the word if, for instance, the Player is a He or a She.
In English even a "Sexual Maniac Wrestler" Could still be a girl (Laugh).