Gender neutral language in Swedish: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 13:06, 26 May 2024

Other languages:

English
svenska

Gender neutral language

The Swedish language has two grammatical genders, common and neuter. Swedish is easier than gender neutral language (also called gender inclusive language) in many other languages, because its grammatical gender is less pervasive than in languages like German or French. See the main article on gender neutral language for general reasons to use neutral language, common problems in using it, and its use for nonbinary people.

Pronouns

Gender-neutral third-person singular

Swedish’s official gender-neutral pronoun is hen/hen/hens. The Swedish common-inanimate pronoun den/den/dens (equivalent to it/it/its) is also used for gender-neutral language and by some nonbinary people, as well as the non-standard anglicized practice of singular de/dem/deras (they/them/their). Some nonbinary people have also opted for neopronoun such as hin/hin/hins, which is in actuality an obsolete pronoun that means something alike “that one”, but is in modern times pretty much only used in the set phrase “hin håle” (the hard one, the devil).

Hen	Standard gender-neutral/third-gender personal pronoun
hen	Subject form
hen/henom	Object form is generaly just "hen", but some use "henom". It is very individual.
hens	Possessive form

Den	Gender-neutral/common-inanimate "it"
den	Subject/object form
dens/dess	Possessive form

De	Non-standard anglicized singular "they"
de	Subject form is sometimes written "dom"
dem	Object form is sometimes written "dom"
deras	Possessive form

Hin	Neopronoun/obsolete pronoun "hin"
hin	Subject/object form
hi

@@ Line 97: / Line 97: @@
 ===<translate><!--T:24--> Honorary titles</translate>===
-<translate><!--T:25--> In older Swedish, titles/phrases based on one's gender have been used to mention/adress someone with politeness/formality i.e. fru, fröken, dam, herr, mister etc. This has also been used in front of profession titles, e.g. fru/herr Minister. This is rather an obsolete practice and is only used in a few select cases. In modern Swedish, when mentioning or adressing someone more formally, one should instead use both first name and last name or only last name without any title. An innovative option could be to use only the first name's initial and then the last name. Another innovative option would be to use formal plural forms with a capital letter, e.g. ”Tack Ni minister!” (Thank You minister!), ”Hej! Ni Andersson.” (Hi! You Andersson.), ”Låt De minister tala till punkt.” (Let They minister speak.), ”De Andersson har godkänt begäran.” (They Andersson have accepted the request.). In addition, you can use words such as "sällskapet" (the company) if you want to be polite regarding a person's companion.<u>Exemple sentences:</u>
+<translate><!--T:25--> In older Swedish, titles/phrases based on one's gender have been used to mention/adress someone with politeness/formality i.e. fru, fröken, dam, herr, mister etc. This has also been used in front of profession titles, e.g. fru/herr Minister. This is rather an obsolete practice and is only used in a few select cases. In modern Swedish, when mentioning or adressing someone more formally, one should instead use both first name and last name or only last name without any title. An innovative option could be to use only the first name's initial and then the last name. Another innovative option would be to use formal plural forms with a capital letter, e.g. ”Tack Ni minister!” (Thank You minister!), ”Hej! Ni Andersson.” (Hi! You Andersson.), ”Låt De minister tala till punkt.” (Let They minister speak.), ”De Andersson har godkänt begäran.” (They Andersson have accepted the request.). In addition, you can use words such as "sällskapet" (the company) if you want to be polite regarding a person's companion.
+<u>Exemple sentences:</u>
 Ursäkta, vad vill Ni ha?