Revisiting my German pronouns
I still prefer they/them for both English and as neo-pronouns in German; nothing has changed about this fact. But I’m opening up for more “conventional” German pronouns.
Three years ago, I wrote about the German pronoun sie and how overloaded with meaning it already is. For this reason and because I wanted to distance myself as much as possible from anything related to the gender binary, I never even thought about using sie/ihr as my German pronouns.
Though recently I started to experiment with the German sie, and I have to admit it feels right. This certainly doesn’t mean I’m a women, nor do I want to be adressed with gendered words like “sister” or “ms”. I just want German pronouns that feel good and are at the same time easy enough for people to use so they don’t constantly misgender me.
To recap my German pronouns in order of preference, you may choose whichever set you’re more comfortable using in German:
- they/them
- sie/ihr
My German pronouns guide contains examples for both sets.