I have an nb friend who’s Finnish. They prefer “It” as a pronoun. I had to explain that as a white native english speaker, we have shat the bed waaayyy too hard to use that one in our language.
I mean, in casual spoken finnish, “it” dominates. The third person singular for people “hän” is already gender neutral, but I guess we prefer not to make assumptions about anyone’s personhood :D. Or maybe it (se) just rolls off the tongue more conveniently.
Also funnily enough many people use “hän” when talking about pets and other animals whilst still using “se” when talking about people. “Hän” feels a bit stiff and formal when talking about people.
I have an nb friend who’s Finnish. They prefer “It” as a pronoun. I had to explain that as a white native english speaker, we have shat the bed waaayyy too hard to use that one in our language.
I mean, in casual spoken finnish, “it” dominates. The third person singular for people “hän” is already gender neutral, but I guess we prefer not to make assumptions about anyone’s personhood :D. Or maybe it (se) just rolls off the tongue more conveniently.
Also funnily enough many people use “hän” when talking about pets and other animals whilst still using “se” when talking about people. “Hän” feels a bit stiff and formal when talking about people.
“Hän” feels like thee thou in English to me, way too old timey and formal.
It (se) is neutral and relaxed
“Thou” is actually the informal alternative to “you”. It came to be seen as insulting and its usage was dropped.
Yeah, I think it’s to make sure that the animal in question is being recognized as an individual, whereas for people that’s taken for granted.
Yeah it’s signaling respect
I think it has a lot to do with how it conjugates, “sen” and “sillä” is quicker than “hänen” and “hänellä”.
Yah, i get why they prefer using it and in Finnish it’s fine. In English it’s…Very much not. It’s a dehumaniser. Was an interesting conversation.
Tell your friend a follower of Christ who speaks native English says “it” is valid.