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I have always problem with finding a suitable sentence to avoid a gender dependent pronoun. I know I can use "they" or "their", but if there were other options to totally omit them, I would prefer them.

For example I wrote:

The user can utilize this information to create appropriate rules to identify his items of interest.

Can I here say "the items of interest"?

Are they other options? In general?

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  • In this case, just omit the pronoun. They are not going to be anyone else's items of interest are they? You won't always be able to circumvent this hoary old problem. If you try, you'll end up like Don Quixote -- tilting at windmills.
    – Mick
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 17:45
  • @Mick thanks, you mean "the items of interest" with "the" right?
    – Ahmad
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 17:52
  • Absolutely not. No way. Nada!
    – Mick
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 17:54
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    The items of interest don't have to belong to anyone, so you can just say "identify items of interest." I don't know why you can do it, but you can. We need a tame grammarian to tell us why. Maybe one will happen by presently.
    – Mick
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 18:00
  • @Mick it seems you mean "zero article" rule.
    – Ahmad
    Commented Oct 29, 2016 at 18:04

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There are some writers who use

(s)he

to indicate the subjective third person instead of either he or she, and

hir

may also be used in place of the objective or possessive him/his and her to be gender neutral.

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