Gender neutral language in Swedish: Difference between revisions

One problem that can occur with the pronouns "man/en" is that the pronouns can hide who is doing what in the sentence. This is especially true in sentences where different acting parts are referred to and the pronouns can be replaced with pretty much any pronoun or noun. So instead of:

* ”På kundtjänst har '''man/en''' problem med att '''man/en''' ställer otydliga frågor.” That could be read as either: ”På kundtjänst har '''de''' problem med att '''du''' ställer otydliga frågor.” or ”På kundtjänst har '''ingen''' problem med att '''alla''' ställer otydliga frågor.” One can instead write out the specific acting parts such as ”På kundtjänst har '''vi''' problem med att '''kunderna''' ställer otydliga frågor.”

A good rule of thumb is to always state who is doing what. This will prevent readers from wondering who you are referring to. And if you can address the reader directly with "you", that is usually the clearest thing.

"Man/en" is a way of showing that a statement is universal or general, for example, “man/en ska inte ljuga.” (One shouldn't lie.) But there are other ways of expressing yourself that are also general:

"Man/en" also works if you want to refer to anyone within a group or area: "I Sverige fikar man/en mycket." (In Sweden one "fikar" mycket.) Here too, there are plenty of options: