I know, I know. It’s complicated, and maybe impossible. A lot needs to change to make this easy, and I’m certainly in no position to revolutionize the French language.

I need to add French pronouns to my email signature. I don’t necessarily need to use them, but ideally I could explain to someone how to use them in a sentence.

“Iel” isn’t perfect, but it’s the most popular right now. That’s good enough for me.

I’m confused about the rest. Can anyone give me guidance on the most popular Iel equivalent of [il/le/lui] and [elle/la/elle]?

Is there a good website where I can see the pronouns in use, that isn’t a style guide about pronouns?

Thanks for stopping by :)

  • Kajo [he/him] 🌈@beehaw.org
    5·
    1 year ago

    I’ve seen non binary people using [iel/ellui], but to be honest the object pronoun “ellui” is much less popular than the subject pronoun “iel”.

    (I can’t find a reliable source on that)

    • communication [they]@beehaw.orgOPEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Thanks! It’s really hard to get a feel for what people actually use and recognize. There are resources saying “here are 20 NB pronouns that exist”, which is great, but they’re not helpful to someone without a fairly sophisticated level of fluency. Perhaps [iel/ellui/lea] is an option, despite my dislike of the gender-combo construction.

      • alex [they, il]
        3·
        1 year ago

        my friends and I tend to use iel/iel/lae more, for simplicity. it’s technically correct as well :)