<p>First of all, there is only 他 in ancient Chinese. The invention of the font 她 comes from the influence of foreign languages in 1900s.</p>

<p>And there is no word in ancient Chinese contains the usage of IT as a gender neutral personal pronoun. Consulting foreign languages we borrow 它 as IT. 它 is actually the ancient word of 他. 它 means "other" in common use.</p>

<p>Therefore, when you use 他/她/它, try to think about it in your language and that's all clearly. </p>

<p>But someone uses 他 instead of 她 online, that's because they type too quickly to select the word...</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-23T03:41:24.350Z
2018-01-23T03:41:24.350Z
Hao FU
<p>No, you can't if you already know she is a woman. However, if you don't know the gender, you can use 他.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-23T03:18:42.937Z
2018-01-23T03:18:42.937Z
dan
<p>Is it ok to use 他 as a gender neutral personal pronoun (as it used to be before 她 was introduced) even if I know that the subject is female?</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>Example: 他是我妹妹　vs　他是我妹妹</p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2018-01-23T08:20:52.560Z
Please see https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/27352/what-would-a-non-binary-ta-look-like
dROOOze
<characters><writing><pronouns>
Is it ok to use 他 as a gender neutral personal pronoun (instead of 她) when the subject is known to be female?
# Is it ok to use 他 as a gender neutral personal pronoun (instead of 她) when the subject is known to be female?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2018-01-23)

Is it ok to use 他 as a gender neutral personal pronoun (as it used to be before 她 was introduced) even if I know that the subject is female?

> Example: 他是我妹妹　vs　他是我妹妹

**Tags:** characters, writing, pronouns

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: Please see https://chinese.stackexchange.com/questions/27352/what-would-a-non-binary-ta-look-like  

---

## 2 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2018-01-23. Score: 2 | Accepted answer

First of all, there is only 他 in ancient Chinese. The invention of the font 她 comes from the influence of foreign languages in 1900s.

And there is no word in ancient Chinese contains the usage of IT as a gender neutral personal pronoun. Consulting foreign languages we borrow 它 as IT. 它 is actually the ancient word of 他. 它 means "other" in common use.

Therefore, when you use 他/她/它, try to think about it in your language and that's all clearly.

But someone uses 他 instead of 她 online, that's because they type too quickly to select the word...


---

### Answer by username_3 on 2018-01-23. Score: 1

No, you can't if you already know she is a woman. However, if you don't know the gender, you can use 他.


---

