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Hey, Dr. Jill, I want to ask you something about gendered words in English.
嘿，吉尔博士，我想问你一些有关英语性别词的问题。
Sure, John, of course, you know that English doesn't have grammatical gender, like the Romance languages do--they show male or female with word endings.
当然，约翰，当然，你知道英语在语法上是不区分性别的，不像罗曼语那样——它们用单词后缀表示男性或女性。
Right. I'm wondering why no linguist has come up with a better pronoun for when you don't know someone's gender.
没错。我想知道为什么没有语言学家想出一个更好的代词来指代某个你不知道性别的人。
Everyone is using "they" now.
现在每个人都在用“they”。
Yes, we use singular "they" often in our stories.
是的，我们在故事中经常使用“they”的单数形式。
And I hear that question often--why don't language experts come up with a new pronoun?
我经常听到这样的问题——为什么语言专家不想出一个新的代词呢？
Many have tried over the years.
多年来，许多人都尝试过。
But it must be hard to get people to change something as basic as pronouns.
但要让人们改变像代词这样基本的东西肯定很难。
That's right. It's easier to change the nouns we use.
没错。改变我们使用的名词更容易。
Remember when we used to say "waitress" and "stewardess?"
还记得我们过去常说的“waitress（服务员）”和“stewardess（空姐）”吗？
Oh, yeah, and now it's "server" and "flight attendant".
哦，是的，现在是“server（服务员）”和“flight attendant（空乘人员）”。
I read that our lawmakers have decided to use only nouns with no gender when they write their rules.
我看到过议员决定在制定规定时只使用无性别名词。
For example?
比如说？
Like this: If a lawmaker wants to bring their child to work, they have to get the Speaker's permission.
比如：如果议员想要带他们的孩子去工作，他们必须得到议长的许可。
Ok, so "child" and not "son or daughter."
好吧，所以是“child”，而不是“儿子或女儿”。
And notice, the rule says, "they" and not "he or she".
注意，规定说的是“they”，而不是“he或she”。
Hang on, someone's at the door.
等一下，有人在敲门。
Who was that?
是谁呢？
I don't know, they went away.
我不知道，他们走了。
Perfect! That's another example of how we use they as a gender--neutral pronoun.
太棒了！这是我们如何将they用作中性代词的另一个例子。
And that's Everyday Grammar!
以上就是今天的《每日语法》！
