How to use pronouns in emails

She/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/their

You may have noticed. We include our pronouns in the signature of our e-mails. There is a reason for that! This way, you always know if your correspondent is a man or a woman and you do not have to worry about which pronoun to use.

You avoid addressing people with the wrong pronoun when they have a gender-neutral name like Nicky, Robin, Xiang, Noa or Jules. You also avoid misgendering trans people and people who are intersex or non-binary by not using their preferred pronoun. This is a small effort that can mean a lot to some people.

How do you use pronouns correctly?

You will often see the following pronouns: she/her/hers, he/him/his, they/them/their. Especially about the last three, many people stumble and do not know exactly how to use these pronouns. Here is an example to explain this:

Robin is non-binary and feels neither male nor female. Therefore, Robin prefers to be addressed with the pronouns they, them and their.

So a sentence like "For him, it is a lot more fun to be addressed in a gender-neutral way." then becomes "It is much nicer for them to be addressed in a gender-neutral way.

You can, of course, also include your pronouns in the signature of your e-mail. We will then take this into account when communicating with you by email.

Do you like this idea? Feel free to share this page with more people and companies to create awareness about the importance of pronouns!