Androgynous pronoun

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An androgynous pronoun is a pronoun that refers to both, third or other, or neither gender.

In English, the pronouns I, me, my, you, your, we, us, our, one, and ones are personal and androgynous. The pronouns it and its are impersonal, and therefore androgynous. The pronouns they, them, and their can be personal or impersonal, but are always androgynous. The pronouns, he, she, him, her, his, and hers are not androgynous--they refer to a specific gender.

Traditionally, when one wishes to refer to a single, definite person androgynously with a pronoun in the third person, the masculine pronoun is used. A significant number people have begun to challenge this tradition, however, usually by resorting to plural pronouns such as "they", "them" and "their" for singular uses. This is called the Singular they.

Alternatively, some groups and individuals have started to use non-standard pronouns, for example e, het, and hets hoping they will become the standards. E would be used instead of he, she or it (as a subject), het would be used instead of him, her or it (as an object), and hets would be used instead of his, hers, or its. See Gender-neutral pronouns, and specifically

Sie and hir
Spivak pronouns (ey, em, eirs; from they, them, theirs)
It
Xe (pronoun)

Example: E gave some of hets money to the child, who in turn gave het some lemonade.

E is pronounced just like the "e" sound in he and she, but het is pronounced with the same "e" sound as in wet so as not to confuse it with hit, heat, hurt, or hate.

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