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I'm translating a course manual but I'm struggling with something. The manual could be read by a man or a woman.

In my own language, he or she or it doesn't exist, so I'm not sure how to make my texts easier to read.

The student can meet his/her Inner Guide who opens his/her heart chakra.
The teacher guides his/her student so he/she can advance more in his/her life.
I'm going to open his/her chakra and so he/she can express his/her emotions easier.

Andrew Leach
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Tom
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1 Answers1

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A standard answer is the singular they, but that can run into problems. As your question is a translation question, there are wrinkles which that potential duplicate may not address.

The teacher guides their student so they can advance more in their life.

Who do all the pronouns refer to?

I'd choose his or her (referring to a typical but generic individual student) and stick to it. To counter accusations of gender stereotyping, choose the pronoun which doesn't conform to most of your actual students. You might choose the opposite gender for teachers.

The teacher guides his student so she can advance more in her life.

There's no ambiguity there.

If it's a course guide, you might be able to speak directly to the student: use you. Sometimes, especially where the source language is very different from the destination language in a translation, a literal translation isn't possible and it is actually necessary to recast sentences completely. English doesn't have a genderless pronoun in the third person singular except for the [obviously unsuitable] inanimate it and [potentially problematic] singular they (plus some recently coined ones like ze, xe, etc., which remain virtually unused and would probably not be understood), so it's reasonable to avoid the problem altogether. This may well be the best solution.

Your teacher guides you so you can advance more in your life.

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Andrew Leach
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  • I took the liberty of adding a bit of hedging clarification to the last paragraph; feel free to revert if you think it's unnecessarily pedantic. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Aug 13 '16 at 10:57
  • @J It had occurred to me: I plumped on the best-not-to-mention side of the line, but there's no reason to remove it. Thanks :-) – Andrew Leach Aug 13 '16 at 10:59
  • 'The teacher guides his student so he can advance more in his life.' is identically ambiguous. – Edwin Ashworth Aug 13 '16 at 11:12
  • Thank you for your answer, I understand it. But, what if I have to talk in third person. My whole text is full of this kind of sentences. – Tom Aug 13 '16 at 11:14
  • OK. I make it more simple. This is what I have to say in a meditation for example. I have men and women in the group. An Inner Guide can also be a man or a woman. And also I don't want to repeat the word 'Inner Guide' everywhere. "Your Inner Guide places his/her hands on your head.... Place your hands on his/her head." – Tom Aug 13 '16 at 11:19
  • I've already covered that. Choose either his or her and stick to it. Or, in that sentence, the singular they works and you could use that. – Andrew Leach Aug 14 '16 at 23:21