Rosie:Hi and welcome to Question and Answer of the week. I'm Rosie and today
Helen is with me to talk about pronouns.

Helen:Oh… that sounds fascinating. 什么是pronoun?

Rosie:Pronouns Helen, you know – I, you, he, she, it, we and they. It might sound quite basic, but there are some complicated uses of pronouns in English.

Helen:啊，你说的是代词，比如he, she, they, 不过有时候挺容易把他们给搞混的。今天我们的问题来自宋宇飞同学:

Question

I'm Song Yufei (宋宇飞）from Dandong, Liaoning. I'm very confused about pronouns. The other day I heard an English saying: He that runs fast will not run long. Here the pronoun is he. I also read this in a news report: "Britain and her partners are helping to rebuild roads and bridges and buildings." Here the pronoun is her.

The two sentences are both talking about a person whose sex is unknown or a thing without sex. But why we don't use the pronoun it? And why sometimes he and sometimes her? May using a particular pronoun such as he show no respect to the other sex? I would appreciate it if you can answer my question.

Helen:宋宇飞同学想知道为什么英语里在不知道某人性别时，我们会用he 男性他，而有时候在说起东西时，我们却会用'she'女性她。为什么不用it 它？

Rosie:This is a really useful question as a lot of students get confused about using pronouns. Let's have a look at the first part of the question: why do we use he to refer to someone when a person's sex in not known?

Helen:小宋同学给我们举了一个例子：He that runs fast will not run long. 为什么这里是he, 其实我们并不知道这说的到底是男性还是女性？
Rosie:This is called the generic he in English and it's used when we're talking about people generally, rather than about a man or a woman specifically.You often find this in sayings or in general statements.
 

Helen:Right, 这么说这个一般的他generic he 可以在我们并不知道某人性别的情况下使用。Isn't that a bit sexist? 这算不算性别歧视？

Rosie:Well, it's the way that language evolved, but some people do think it's sexist. And that's why a lot of people would use the pronoun they to refer to a person in a general way.

Helen:Hang on… they? 可是they 不是指两个或两个以上的人吗？

Rosie:It's usually used for more than one person, but we can sometimes use it for one person – it's a bit like the generic he we talked about. Let's have a look at some examples of this use of he and they:

Inserts

He who pays the piper calls the tune!

If someone knocks at the door and you answer in your pyjamas, what will they think of you?

A student has just emailed us but they didn 't give their name.

Helen:第一个例子是一个成语，意思是谁出钱，谁说了算。我们并不知道这个谁是男还是女，但习惯用语中用 he来代表了这个人。So here the generic he is used to refer to 'a person'.

Rosie:That's exactly right. And in the other examples the pronoun they is used.
So we heard: a student has just emailed us but they didn't give their name. We don't know whether the student is a man or a woman, so we use they.

Helen:第二个和第三个例子中，代词they 也是指一个人，而且我们也不知道这个人的性别。The pronoun they can refer to a person when we don't know their sex.

Rosie:Yes – and you just used it in that sentence: It refers to a person when we
don't know their sex. Now, I think we've talked enough about they and the masculine he. Let's move on to talk about the feminine pronoun she.

Helen:记得小宋同学还问到为什么在提起国家的时候，英语用she 女性她？In English we sometimes use she to refer to countries, boats or cars.
 

Rosie:We do. And Song Yufei gives a good example from a news report, which is 'Britain and her partners'. So Britain is seen as a she, as a feminine thing.And people use she to refer to cars and boats too.

Helen:代词she 女性她往往也被用于船只和汽车。Often men name their ships after a
woman they love, like their wife or their mother. So the pronoun she is almost like a term of affection for some objects. 用女性她可能是因为以前男人以他们的母亲或爱人的名字给船只起名，所以后来爱车，爱船也就沿用了she 这个代词。
 

Rosie:I often hear men refer to cars as she… They say things like:

Insert

Look at this car I bought, isn't she gorgeous?

Rosie:But it's a subjective thing and many people would just use it.

Helen:当然不是所有人都对汽车或船只有这种感觉，所以很多人也会用it 动物它来代表一件东西。

Rosie:Well, have you talked enough about pronouns, Helen?

Helen:Yes, I have. We have, in fact. I hope you have learnt something today,
whether you are a he or a she… or a they, an I or even a we.

Rosie:OK Helen … you're not making sense. It's time for us to go. If you have a
question, you can email it to question.chinaelt@bbc.co.uk. Bye!

Helen:Bye!