Project:Policies specific to pronouns

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This page is contains lgbtDB rules, policies, and guidelines regarding pronouns, pronoun use, and other pronoun-related entities on the site. It was adapted from the first incarnation of the site, which was hosted at Yale University in the early 2020s.[lower-alpha 1] Note that this page is a version-of-record referenced at Wikidata:WikiProject_Personal_Pronouns/Best_practices.

Introduction

Parts of Speech

Individual languages have classes known as parts of speech. These parts are often loosely defined linguistically, but they usually define lexical items, such as words, which have similar grammatical properties. Eurocentric tradition has traditionally built out eight parts of speech, based upon the Greek work The Art of Grammar (Ancient Greek: Τέχνη Γραμματική):

  1. Nouns
  2. Verbs
  3. Participles
  4. Articles
  5. Pronouns
  6. Prepositions
  7. Adverbs
  8. Conjunctions

This list was later modified by the Latin grammarian Priscian (fl. 500 CE), excluding "articles" and adding "interjections". English grammarians today usually recognize nine parts of speech:

  1. Nouns
  2. Pronouns
  3. Adjectives
  4. Verbs
  5. Adverbs
  6. Prepositions
  7. Conjunctions
  8. Interjections
  9. Articles (or, more recently, Determiners)

In all cases, pronouns have clearly been considered a significant part of speech in Indo-European languages for centuries. The term pronoun in English is derived from the Old French pronon or pronom, directly from the Latin pronomen, with each language altering the form to conform with their language's equivalent to noun.

In early English education, nouns are taught are being "people, places, or things" as well as abstract ideas. This is not the most extensive definition, and notably nouns also include qualities, actions, states of existence, etc. While the category of nouns is a basic lexical category in almost all languages, the syntactic category and rules for nouns (or what might be considered nouns from a linguistic perspective) differs between languages.

Pronouns

Pronouns, words or groups of words that can somewhat generically replace nouns in a given situation, such as in a sentence or multiple sentences, have come into existence in order to replace nouns, likely either to act as shorthand or to make diversify sentence structure and avoid repetition. Pronouns are a type of pro-form, as are pro-adjectives, pro-adverbs, pro-verbs, etc. Each of these categories acts like a pronoun. For instance, a pro-adjective replaces an adjective in a given situation.

Pronounless and Pro-drop Languages

Many languages do not have pronouns to varying degrees (pronounless languages), or allow for omission of pronouns in specific pragmatic or grammatical situations. The latter classification of languages are often referred to as pro-drop languages. Therefore, languages which do not allow for omission of pronouns are known as non-pro-drop languages. Non-pro-drop languages include English, (standard) German, and French. Pro-drop languages can be classified based on many features, but usually they are either termed full pro-drop languages or partial pro-drop languages. Partial pro-drop languages allow for omission of pronouns in specific situations, but include pronouns generally. Full pro-drop languages, on the other hand, may include mandatory dropping of pronouns or no pronouns at all.

Personal Pronouns

A selection of pronouns are used to refer to persons (or, more specifically, to grammatical persons, as such persons might not be consider persons in the traditional sense). These are therefore known as personal pronouns. Personal pronouns may exist independently or dependently. Independent pronouns syntactically act as both the noun and determiner of a determined noun phrase, which is a noun phrase with a marker. Consider the sentence "A friend called". In this sentence, "*friend called" is the determined noun phrase. In contrast, dependent pronouns act solely as determiners. For instance, in the sentence "What food would you like?" the word "what" acts as a determiner and therefore as a dependent pronoun.

Independent forms of personal pronouns in English include subject pronouns, object pronouns, reflexive pronouns, and (substantive, independent, or strong) possessive pronouns. The only dependent form in English are possessive determiners (also called possessive adjectives, dependent possessive pronouns, weak possessive pronouns, etc.).

Gendered Pronouns

Only about 30% languages with independent pronouns display some form of grammatical gender.[1]

Most grammatical gender classes in languages have some relationship to sex or gender, i.e. having masculine or feminine forms or varieties, or additional classes that are considered neuter (neutral) or epicene. In some languages the assignment of grammatical gender correlates with a word's semantic content (such as the word for "woman" being grammatically feminine in Spanish) or is entirely arbitrary or based on other grammatical rules (such as the word for "girl" being grammatically neuter in German). Different systems of grammatical gender classes are referred to by their gender contrasts; for example:

  • masculine–feminine gender contrast (observed in Romance and Afroasiatic languages)
  • masculine–feminine–neuter gender contrast (observed in most Slavic languages and Sanskrit)
  • animate–inanimate gender contrast (observed in Anatolian languages and Algonquian languages)
  • common–neuter gender contrast (observed in Danish and Swedish)

A number of languages have more than three grammatical gender classes, such as Chechen (6), Ganda (10), Swahili (18), Worrorra (5), and Shona (20).

Genderless and Gender Neutral Pronouns

Pronouns which are inherently genderless due to the construct of the language are referred to as genderless pronouns.

Those which do have gendered pronouns may or may not have existing pronouns which are gender-neutral (not leaning toward masculine or feminine gender), gender-free (having no connection to gender whatsoever), neuter gender (referring to being ungendered), epicene gender (having the same form regardless of gender), and gender-expansive (referring to a multiplicity of genders beyond masculine and feminine).

Neologistic and Paleogistic Pronouns

Oftentimes, languages may lack particular words to describe given concepts. In many cases, such a concept is implied via patterns in other parts of the language, but simply does not exist. For instance, the English language has grandfather, grandmother, and grandparent, but only uncle and aunt. This represents a semantic gap, which presents a perfect opportunity for the creation of a new word. The technical term for such a new word is neologism.

However, as Thor put it in Avengers: Infinity War: "all words are made up". So why are some words considered neologisms, while others are not? Generally speaking, it has to do with the creation and maintenance of the standard form of a given language. Once a term begins to appear in the language's standard form (such as appearance in general dictionaries) and thereby passes an arbitrary threshold, it is usually no longer considered a neologism.

The evolution of new terms generally follows this pattern:

  1. protologism, being a term coined by an individual or a small group but not yet individually published outside of these select "coiners".
  2. prelogism, being a term which has begun to catch on outside of the small group of "coiners", but is not yet considered to be mainstream.
  3. neologism, being a term which is starting to fall into mainstream usage.
  4. cenologism, being a term in mainstream usage; unfortunately there was not a word to describe this intermediate situation, so this is, in and of itself, a neologism.
  5. paleologism, a mainstream term which is considered to be old, or even dated or obsolete entirely.

As examples, the pronouns ze and singular they are considered cenologisms (not neologisms) in English because they appear in the standard general English dictionary The Oxford English Dictionary.

Pronoun Sets

A set of related pronoun forms is referred to by lgbtDB as a pronoun set. The label of a set in lgbtDB includes the various forms present in a language separated using a ", " (comma with a trailing space) rather than the more often utilized "/" (forward slash) because some sets include a forward slash. However, forms with a forward slash should be listed as aliases.

English

In English, there are five main personal pronoun forms, being subject pronoun, object pronoun, possessive determiner, possessive pronoun, and reflexive pronoun. For example:

  • she, subject pronoun
  • her, object pronoun
  • her, possessive determiner
  • hers, possessive pronoun
  • herself, reflexive pronoun

German

In German, there are four main personal pronoun forms, being nominative pronoun (Nominativpronomen), possessive article (Possessivartikel), dative pronoun (Dativpronomen), and accusative pronoun (Akkusativpronomen). For example:

  • sie, nominative pronoun
  • ihr, possessive article
  • ihr, dative pronoun
  • sie, accusative pronoun

Creating a Pronoun Set

Conditions for Creation

A pronoun set should be added only in one of the following situations:

  1. An existing database, such as the Homosaurus (Q20495) or the GSSO (Q20991), includes the pronoun set but lgbtDB does not yet contain that pronoun set.
  2. An entity (such as a person, fictional person, etc.) is added whose utilized pronoun set does not currently exist in the database.

Labels and Aliases

Because some pronoun sets utilizes forward slashes ("/"), the label for a pronoun set is always each individual form (in the given language), separated by commas ",". For instance, the main label for he/him pronouns is "he, him, his, his, himself", in the order subject pronoun, object pronoun, possessive determiner, possessive pronoun, and reflexive pronoun.

Aliases for "he, him, his, his, himself" may include any relatively non-ambiguous references to this pronoun set, such as "he/him pronouns", "he/him/his/his/himself", "he/him", "he/him/his", etc.

Descriptions

The description of the pronoun set should always have a first sentence of the form "A set of pronouns consisting of..." and then list each individual pronoun. For instance, the sentence is written as "A set of pronouns consisting of he, him, his, his, and himself" for he, him, his, his, himself (Q2525).

Classifications

A pronoun set should always be an instance of (P1) pronoun set (Q2524) or one of its subclasses. A pronoun set should also be classed by its primary language, such as by being an instance of (P1) English-language pronoun set (Q117635).

Subject/Verb Agreement

Pronoun Forms

In lgbtDB, unlike in Wikidata, individual pronoun forms are items instead of forms. Forms (as items) are indicated in a set using individual properties.

Chinese

Mandarin

Dutch

For Dutch-language pronoun sets, the properties are:

This ordering and naming scheme is derived from Pronouns.page.

English

For English-language pronoun sets, the properties are:

This ordering (and the properties themselves) are derived from Pronouns.page and Pronoun Island.

French

For French-language pronoun sets, the properties are:

This ordering and naming scheme is derived from Pronouns.page.

Two other forms exist in French, but are not commonly used, so they are typically not listed:

German

For German-language pronoun sets, the properties are:

This ordering and naming scheme is derived from Pronouns.page.

Japanese

Norwegian

Bokmål

For Bokmål-language pronoun sets, the properties are:

This ordering and naming scheme is derived from Pronouns.page.

Polish

For Polish-language pronoun sets, the properties are:

This ordering and naming scheme is derived from Pronouns.page.

Portuguese

For Portuguese-language pronoun sets, the properties are:

This ordering and naming scheme is derived from Pronouns.page.

Russian

For Russian-language pronoun sets, the properties are:

Spanish

For Spanish-language pronoun sets, the properties are:

This ordering and naming scheme is derived from Pronouns.page.

Swedish

For Swedish-language pronoun sets, the properties are:

This ordering and naming scheme is derived from Pronouns.page.

Ukrainian

This ordering and naming scheme is derived from Pronouns.page.

Creating a Pronoun

Once you have determined that a pronoun does not exist, click "New Lexeme" on the left-hand side of the screen under "Wikibase".

In the "Lemma" section, put the base form of the pronoun in whatever language it is in. Then under language, type the language name and select it. Once you do so, another section will pop up, being "Spelling variant of the Lemma". This is the two-letter alphabetic code for the language of the lemma (for example, 'en' for English). Select the respective code. Finally, under lexical category, select the type of pronoun, for example, "personal pronoun" (Q14729). For an example, se "ze" (L1236).

Chinese

Mandarin

Dutch

English

An individual English-language personal pronoun will have (at minimum) five forms: subject pronoun, object pronoun, possessive determiner, possessive pronoun, or reflexive pronoun. These will be added as forms at the bottom of the lexeme page; sometimes the same base form will have multiple forms or ways of declining, such as with "ze" (L1236), having multiple object forms for ze/zir, ze/hir, etc. In this case, "zir" is added as L1236-F2 and "hir" is added as L1236-F14. Please note that this differs to the representation currently used in Wikidata, where each way of declining a pronoun is added as a separate lexeme entry; e.g., ze/zer is represented by L304664 and ze/hir is represented by L1230597.

French

German

Japanese

Norwegian

Bokmål

Polish

Portuguese

Russian

Spanish

Swedish

Ukrainian

Assigning Pronouns

Assignment of pronouns to an entity utilizes the the property pronouns (P1211).

Best Practices

Generally speaking, respect for persons in lgbtDB is paramount. Please adhere to the following as a rule of thumb:

  1. Do NOT make unsourced statements. Pronouns should always have a source.
  2. Do NOT use bots to probabilistically assign pronouns, and do not assign pronouns based on assumptions of a given name.
  3. Do NOT include pronouns used by a living or deceased person at an earlier stage of life, unless explicitly noted by that person.
  4. Do NOT out individuals based on private statements, or statements which could reasonably be construed to be private.

Ethical Framework

Guidelines for pronoun assignment build upon several ethical and legal documents. These include the following:

  1. Belmont Report
  2. Declaration of Helsinki
  3. General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)
  4. Yogyakarta Principles
  5. Yogyakarta Principles+10

First and foremost, respect for persons is essential. If a living person asks for removal of some datum, it should be removed, per Article 17 of the GDPR and as an extension of the general right to be forgotten (RTBF). In cases wherein multiple protections are individual, the strictest of those should be adhered to.

Constraints

Type Constraints

To be assigned a personal pronoun, an entity must have, in some context a quality of personhood, as indicated by either being an instance of person or its analogues (religious person, mythological person, fictional person, etc.). Although inanimate objects (such as ships) and animate non-person entities (such as pets) are often attributed pronouns, by definition these assignments are not autonomous and are therefore not accepted within lgbtDB, in line with the Belmont Report (in the section Respect for Persons) and the Yogyakarta Principles+10 (as part of Principle 32, the Right to Bodily and Mental Integrity).

Value-Type Constraint

Only an instance of pronoun set or an instance of one of its descendants can be utilized as a value for pronouns (P77). This is mandatory.

Allowed Entity Type Constraint

Only Wikibase items are allowed to have an instance of pronouns applied to them.

Allowed Qualifiers

Gender Expression Qualifiers
Linguistic Qualifiers

The language of the pronoun set should be indicated using the qualifier property "language" (P1236) along with an instance of a language (Q108), especially if an individual indicates use of multiple pronouns in multiple instances.

Location Qualifiers
Regional Qualifiers

In some cases, the individual region determines pronoun usage. These qualifiers are almost exclusively used in regard to fictional, mythological, and religious persons. To indicate a particular region, use the qualifier property "region" (P1237) along with an instance of geographic region.

Temporal Qualifiers

Usually, only the most recent known pronouns should be utilized, in respect to RTBF and respect for persons (e.g., avoiding misgendering). However, in specific instances, a temporal qualifier may be necessary.

Variable Temporal Qualifiers
Static Temporal Qualifiers

In some cases, a specific marker indicates a change of pronoun use. Some transgender people, for instance, refer to themselves using different pronouns before and after some transition process or processes. These individuals may also encourage or ask that others do so as well. Despite this practice becoming less and less common among transgender people generally, as per guidelines relating to autonomy in the Belmont Report (in the section Respect for Persons) and in the Yogyakarta Principles+10 (as part of Principle 32, the Right to Bodily and Mental Integrity), this wish is respected in lgbtDB. In these cases, the static temporal indicator is indicated using using qualifiers which are start time (P44) and end time (P45) for the respective pronoun sets. As well, any pronoun with an "end time" qualifier should be deprecated.

Unclassified Qualifiers

Some qualifiers are unclassed and can only reasonably be represented using the property qualifier (P205) along with an instance of the class qualifier (Q19666). Some notable general examples are listed herein, but note that specific examples are covered separately as use cases.

Drag

Some drag performers use different pronouns while in drag or out of drag. For these individuals, the qualifiers in drag (Q117737) and out of drag (Q117738) can be utilized. For an example, see Pattie Gonia (Q117975).

Flowcharting

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This section provides a general flowchart to follow when assigning a given pronoun set to a person. Start at (1) and move forward to where directed. Note that this system may not work for each individual.

  1. Is the individual a fictional character or a real-life human being?
    1. If fictional character, proceed to 2.
    2. If real-life human being, proceed to 6.
  2. Has that fictional character stated pronouns that they use in the source material itself, or are the pronouns used for them in other canon material?
    1. If yes, add those pronouns, with the source (indicated using references) being that canon material. Proceed to 5.
    2. If no, proceed to 3.
  3. Have the fictional character's pronouns been confirmed by "word of god", i.e. by a show creator, producer, writer, or actor?
    1. If yes, add those pronouns, attribute the source (using references), use qualifier (P205) hypothesized (Q117742), and supported by (P311) with the individual creator, producer, writer, actor, etc. if working via lgbtDB. Additionally, if this information is also disputed, add disputed by (P286) and note the disputing individual. If working using Wikidata, use nature of statement (P5102) hypothesis (Q41719), and add statement supported by (P3680) with the individual creator, producer, writer, actor, etc. As with lgbtDB, if the statement is disputed as well, utilize statement disputed by and note the individual. Proceed to 5.
    2. If no, proceed to 4.
  4. Has some publication deduced the fictional character's pronoun usage, based on statements made by the character, that are recorded in source material?
    1. If yes, add those pronouns, attribute the source (using references), use qualifier (P205) hypothesized (Q117742), and supported by (P311) with the individual author. if working via lgbtDB. Additionally, if this information is also disputed, add disputed by (P286) and note the disputing individual. If working using Wikidata, use nature of statement (P5102) hypothesis (Q41719), and add statement supported by (P3680) with the individual. As with lgbtDB, if the statement is disputed as well, utilize statement disputed by and note the individual. Proceed to 5.
    2. If no, do not include this pronoun set. Proceed to 5.
  5. Is there another pronoun set that might exist for the fictional character?
    1. If yes, proceed to 2.
    2. If no, you are finished.
  6. Is the real-life human being alive or deceased?
    1. If deceased (or disappeared and declared legally deceased), proceed to 7.
    2. If alive, proceed to 9.
  7. Has the living individual stated, in terms as unequivocal as possible, their use of the given pronoun set, in their own words and in a published, public-facing resource, such as a personal website, newspaper article, magazine article, etc., and is it the most recent set of pronouns that they've stated in this manner?
    1. If yes, add the pronoun set and attribute the source using references.
    2. If no, proceed to 8.
  8. Is there another pronoun set which might exist for the living individual?
    1. If yes, proceed to 7.
    2. If no, you are finished.
  9. Has the deceased individual stated, in terms as unequivocal as possible, their use of the given pronoun set, in their own words and in a published, public-facing resource, such as a personal website, newspaper article, magazine article, etc., and is it the most recent set of pronouns that they've stated in relationship to their time of death?
    1. If yes, add the pronoun set and attribute the source using references.
    2. If no, proceed to 10.
  10. Has the deceased individual's pronoun usage been theorized in published material, based on their own words (i.e. quoted discussions with close friends or relatives, parts of a diary, journal, or letters to confidants)?
    1. If yes, add the pronoun set, attribute the source using references, use qualifier (P205) hypothesized (Q117742), and supported by (P311) with the individual author. if working via lgbtDB. Additionally, if this information is also disputed, add disputed by (P286) and note the disputing individual. If working using Wikidata, use nature of statement (P5102) hypothesis (Q41719), and add statement supported by (P3680) with the individual. As with lgbtDB, if the statement is disputed as well, utilize statement disputed by and note the individual. Proceed to 14.
    2. If no, proceed to 11.
  11. Has the deceased individual's pronoun usage been theorized in published material, based upon their lived experience?
    1. If yes, add the pronoun set, attribute the source using references, use qualifier (P205) hypothesized (Q117742), and supported by (P311) with the individual author. if working via lgbtDB. Additionally, if this information is also disputed, add disputed by (P218) and note the disputing individual. If working using Wikidata, use nature of statement (P5102) hypothesis (Q41719), and add statement supported by (P3680) with the individual. As with lgbtDB, if the statement is disputed as well, utilize statement disputed by and note the individual. Proceed to 14.
    2. If no, proceed to 12.
  12. Has the deceased individual's pronoun usage been theorized based on the statements of others who lived contemporaneously, especially those who knew the individual well, as referenced in published material?
    1. If yes, add the pronoun set, attribute the source using references, use qualifier (P205) hypothesized (Q117742), and supported by (P311) with the individual author. if working via lgbtDB. Additionally, if this information is also disputed, add disputed by (P286) and note the disputing individual. If working using Wikidata, use nature of statement (P5102) hypothesis (Q41719), and add statement supported by (P3680) with the individual. As with lgbtDB, if the statement is disputed as well, utilize statement disputed by and note the individual. Proceed to 14.
    2. If no, proceed to 13.
  13. Has the deceased individual not been identified or otherwise been found in an archaeological context and has had some individual make a statement regarding what their pronouns may have been?
    1. If yes, add the pronoun set, attribute the source using references, use qualifier (P205) hypothesized (Q117742), and supported by (P311) with the individual author. if working via lgbtDB. Additionally, if this information is also disputed, add disputed by (P286) and note the disputing individual. If working using Wikidata, use nature of statement (P5102) hypothesis (Q41719), and add statement supported by (P3680) with the individual. As with lgbtDB, if the statement is disputed as well, utilize statement disputed by and note the individual. Proceed to 14.
    2. If no, proceed to 14.
  14. Is there another pronoun set which might exist for the deceased individual?
    1. If yes, proceed to 8.
    2. If no, you are finished.

Use Cases

These are specific cases which informed the above guidelines.

Avoiding Pronouns

If an individual avoids pronouns, use item "avoids pronouns" (Q117748).

Exploring or Questioning Pronoun Use

In most cases where a person is questioning their pronoun use, it likely should not be added as such to lgbtDB. As part of respect for persons, individuals should be left to experiment, explore, or question their own use of pronouns. In very rare cases, such as for fictional characters or persons who died while still questioning their pronoun use, it may be the only option available. In those cases, you can use "questioning pronouns".

Full Declension of Pronoun Set Unknown

Individual pronoun sets are often not completely declined when individuals use them. However, we do not allow for partial declension pronoun set creation. For this reason, it is suitable to extrapolate the rest of the pronoun set and to add a qualifier which is full declension unknown (Q117754), along with a reference (stated in or reference URL) which includes a direct quotation (P1238) of the pronouns that are known. See Paperboy Prince (Q25575) for an example.

Player Character Has Customizable Pronouns

If a player character in a video game allows the player choice of pronoun, use the indicator customizable pronouns (Q117763), and then add qualifier (P205) based on player's choice of pronouns (Q117764). Next, if the choices are limited, use selectable option (P1239) and add each option individually. For an example, see The Apprentice (Q117766).

Non-Playable Character Has Different Pronouns Based on Player Character's Pronouns

If a non-playable character (NPC) in a video game changes their pronouns based on the player character's pronouns, use the indicator pronouns based on player choice (Q119244). Next, if the choices are limited, use selectable option (P1239) and add each option individually. For an example, see Scout (Q119243).

Uses All Pronouns

If an individual indicates that they use any pronouns, indicate this using all pronouns (Q117772). See Alex Newell (Q117848) for an example.

Uses Any Pronouns

If an individual indicates that they use any pronouns, indicate this using any pronouns (Q117773). See Rain Dove (Q117799) for an example.

Uses Any Pronouns Except a Particular Set

Uses Different Pronouns Based on Gender Expression

For individuals whose pronouns depend on gender expression, use gender expression (P1240) as a qualifier with the respective gender expression type.

Uses Different Pronouns Based on Persona

Many individuals have different pronouns applied to different personas they undertake, especially in the case of drag personas. In these cases, create a page for the persona separate from the page for the person. Then, on the person's page add pronouns as you usually would, with the qualifier persona (P1243) to link the person's page to the persona's page. For an example, see Pattie Gonia (Q117975).

Uses Different Pronouns Based on Sex-Fluid Physiology

Many fictional characters have the ability to shapeshift, whether it be related to the X-gene, regeneration, or various magics. Usually, the fictional person retains a gender regardless of shift, such as the case with Mystique. However, other characters fully shift sex, gender, and pronouns. In this case, usage of the qualifier related to ability (P1242) with the value sex shifting (Q117792) is appropriate. For an example, see The Doctor (Q117794).

If the individual has a particular form (and associated pronoun) currently, add the second pronoun set and use the qualifier most recent (Q117795), and set with a preferred rank. For an example, see Tribore Menendez (Q117796).

Uses Different Pronouns in Different Languages

For individuals who have specified their pronouns only in a particular language, do not attempt to translate these. Pronoun sets are not 1-to-1 and translation may result in unintended mispronouning, a form of misgendering. For examples, see Vico Ortiz (Q117820) and Kim de l'Horizon (Q117996)

Uses Multiple Pronoun Sets

When an individual uses multiple pronoun sets, each set should be added as its own set. If there is some order presented, for example she/they versus they/she, use the qualifier series ordinal (P33) and the number attributed to each set in the ordering (for example, for she/they, "she" would have a series ordinal 1 (one) and "they" would have a series ordinal 2 (two)). For an example of this in practice, see the page for Lily Gladstone (Q117858).

Uses Multiple Pronoun Sets But Has Preference for Particular Set

If a person specifies multiple pronoun sets, but a clear preference for one (or multiple) of them, give indicate the preferred sets using a preferred rank option. Then add a qualifier has preference for (Q117988). For an example, see Suzy Eddie Izzard (Q117986).

Uses Multiple Pronoun Sets With Certain Percentages

If multiple pronoun sets are specified without a qualifier, the assumption is that each pronoun set is to be used equally, i.e. if a person has she/her and they/them pronouns listed, it is assumed that each is used exactly 50% of the time.

Uses Multiple Pronoun Sets with Preference

If an individual acknowledges use of multiple pronouns with clear preferences, these can be indicated using a qualifier that best represents those preferences. For an example, see Dua Saleh (Q17125).

Uses No Pronouns

If an individual does not use pronouns, this can be indicated using the pronoun indicator does not use pronouns (Q4665).

However, if an individual uses pronouns and something other than pronouns (such as a name), use option which does not use pronouns (Q117990). For examples, see Lann Hornscheidt (Q117989) and Kim de l'Horizon (Q117996).

Uses Only Name

If an individual uses only their name, and no pronouns, this can be indicated by using does not use pronouns (Q118005) with has qualifier (P205) uses name only (Q118006). For an example, see Ashiok (Q118003).

Unknown Pronouns

If the pronouns an individual uses are wholly unknown, use the "unknown value" designation.

Examples

Additional examples are shown below for context. As of 10 September 2025, these examples have not been updated!

Real-Life Persons

Fictional Persons

Religious Persons

Mythological Persons

Implementation

Other Implementations

Wikidata

Currently, Wikidata uses personal pronoun (P6553) to indicate an individual's pronoun usage as a singular lexeme. Issues with this implementation are discussed in the FAQ below. Migration of this system to a newer property akin to pronouns (P1211) requires changing over existing use of personal pronoun (P6553).

FAQ

Other Approaches

Wikidata

lgbtDB, while a database in and of itself, was created in part to act as a sandbox to test potential LGBTQIA+-related data modeling in Wikidata. Here, we offer some alternative approaches suggested for pronoun modeling, and explain why they ultimately were not used.

1. What is wrong with linking to a single lexeme, as in personal pronoun (P6553)?

While some pronoun sets are consistent in how they are declined (she/her pronouns, he/him pronouns), many are not (ze/zir pronouns, ze/hir pronouns, ze/mer pronouns, ze/zem pronouns, ze/zim pronouns, etc.). Using a pronoun set better allows for more consistent declining of pronouns and for usage in automated programs which can assist in updating pronouns quickly to prevent mispronouning. Additionally, many people have usage which cannot be tied to a lexeme at all, such as using no pronouns or using any pronouns.

2. Why not create different lexemes for each pronoun set?

A lexeme in Wikidata is a lexical unit based on how a term is spelled. For instance, the lexeme crane (L22641) has two senses, being "family of birds" and "type of machine". If "ze" in ze/mer and "ze" in ze/hir are spelled the same, are part of the same language (English), and are the same part of speech (pronouns), then they cannot be separate lexemes. Once again, the lexeme method would also disinclude important use cases, such as using no pronouns or using any pronouns.

Despite this, note that, as of 2025, guidance from Wikidata is to create different lexemes for every pronoun set, so that the "ze" in ze/mer and "ze" in ze/hir are entirely separate lexemes on Wikidata.

3. Why not add different forms to different senses to indicate each different pronoun set by linking to different senses?

This is not possible. Lexeme forms are tied to the lexeme itself, not lexeme senses.

4. Why not use existing qualifiers to indicate the different forms, such as object form (P5548) or subject form (P5830)?

Although it sounds like "object form" and "subject form" refer to the object and subject of a sentence, respectively, they are not used this way. Instead, "object form" refers to the form which a lexeme is derived from (specifically as a qualifier within derived from lexeme (P5191)), and the subject form indicates the form utilized in an example sentence (specifically as a qualifier within usage example (P5831)).

Generally speaking, although appropriate qualifiers do not currently exist, they could theoretically be created. There are four reasons that this is not an ideal solution: (1) properties for all forms have to be front-loaded for all languages, meaning that a new pronoun set might not be able to be added without creating several new properties, (2) listing a number of qualifiers within each person rather than within a pronoun set page could be overwhelming, with more than 10 qualifiers needed depending on language, (3) a number of properties describe pronoun sets as their own entities (having people that coined them, places of use, links in other wikis, etc.), and (4) this does not allow for a number of important use cases, such as using no pronouns or using any pronouns.

Additional Resources

Notes

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  1. ↑ The original link for this page, now a dead link, was located here.

References

  1. ↑ Siewierska, Anna. "Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns" in The World Atlas of Language Structures Online (2013). Edited by Matthew S. Dryer and Martin Haspelmath. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. [1]
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