Bob He Had a Baby It a Boy
- #1
How-do-you-do there,
yesterday evening, watching Grayness'due south Anatomy, i heard that the newborn was called "she", although i call back in my youth that i was told that a baby should be chosen "it" during 6 months or something like that ? Am I wrong, or is this rules but applied in UK but not in United states ?
Thanks for your answers 
Moderator note: multiple threads merged to create this 1
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wildan1
Moderando ma non troppo (French-English, CC Mod)
- #6
if you don't know the baby's gender, it is often used, as in
Lucy had her babe yesterday!
What is it--a male child or a daughter?
Once you know the reply, however, you lot use he/she even if it is one day sometime!
- #7
J'avais le même problème en parlant de bébé en général, automobile en français le masculin l'emporte.
Exemple, si je dis "Si votre bébé se met à pleurer, donnez-lui sa tétine" -> on parle d'une fille ou d'un garçon !
En anglais, on dit quoi ?
Edit : Si on dit 'give him his dummy' ou 'give her her dummy', on implique le sexe.
Serait-ce 'if baby cries, give them their dummy', même si 50'on parle d'un seul bébé ?
- #ix
A British-Indian friend of mine told me that "it" is an appropriate pronoun for a baby in American English, but not in British English language.
Is information technology true? And what near the other versions of English language?
But maybe we should start a new thread about this.
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- #10
If you lot know whether the baby is a boy or a daughter, use "he" or "she".
If it'south hypothetical and y'all don't know the sex of the baby, you can likewise say "it". At that place'due south null wrong with calling a baby, a canis familiaris, a cat, a child "information technology".
"If your babe is crying, maybe its nappy is wet, perhaps it needs a feed, peradventure information technology just needs a hug."
Hither, you lot tin can't use "they/their" (not in Exist anyway). Merely to get dorsum to the original question, y'all wouldn't use "information technology" for a person, y'all'd utilize "they/their/them" as previous posters have said.
- "Mum, there's someone at the front door."
- "Ask them what they desire."
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- #12
Yous wouldn't employ "it" for a person only there's zilch with calling a baby or a child "it"? It'south obvious for me you think babies and children are non persons.
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- #xiii
Howdy Maud18, and welcome to the forum!
French doesn't have a grammatical neuter gender, and so you have to refer to everything equally either "he" or "she". However I don't depict the conclusion that you think a tabular array is a person.
- #14
Thanks for welcoming me.
No,indeed we don't have a grammatical neuter gender (we should,it'd make everything easier) simply if yous say you wouldn't employ "it" for a person but in that location'due south cipher wrong with calling a baby or a child "it". Why,except because babies and children are non persons? Worse,in your example,you don't know the gender of the person at the door so you use a gender neutral pronoun "they". Why exercise you lot utilize "they" and non "it" in that case?
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- #fifteen
"They" typically refers to more than one thing or person. If it'due south a baby, it's only one affair or person. With the "someone at the door" instance, nosotros've already identified it as a person ("someone" not "something") but we don't know if it'south a man or adult female.
Of form, in that example we could say "ask him or her what he or she wants", but that's impuissant, and so our only recourse in normal idiomatic everyday manner is to utilize "enquire them what they want".
In a vaguely like* parallel with French, we might wonder why "la personne à la porte" is "une personne" fifty-fifty if information technology'due south a male, similarly why it's "la vedette" (even for a male), "la victime" (even for a male) and then forth.
And then really, when we refer to a baby as "information technology" or "its" (usually but on first mention , until we're told whether it's a male child or a girl), we are but using the convention of the language we speak. It doesn't say anything most our perception of the infant as a person or a thing.
Simply if we accept been told that the infant is a boy or a daughter, and and then we go along to refer to "it/its" instead of "he/his" or "she/her", then it might betoken a disparaging or pejorative attitude, depending on the context.
* (in the sense that the determiner doesn't ever correspond to the real nature of the person or matter it describes - "it" for a baby, "la personne" even when the person is a male person)
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Source: https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/en-pronoun-for-a-baby-it-or-he-she.545206/
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