Apedia

Li Personal Pronoun Usage Criticized Null Wikt Etymology

Frequency Rank of Word 10
Word li
Meanings
    (personal pronoun)
    he
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/he
Pinyin null
Buttons
Example Sentences
Wiktionary Entry
lui
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lui#Italian
,
French
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_language
lui
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lui#French
, or
Spanish
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_language
le
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/le#Spanish
, plus the i of personal pronouns.

Pronunciation

  • IPA
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:International_Phonetic_Alphabet
    (
    key
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Esperanto_pronunciation
    )
    : /li/
  • Hyphenation: li
  • Audio:
    (
    file
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/File:Eo-li.ogg
    )

Pronoun

li (accusative

lin
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lin#Esperanto
, possessive
lia
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/lia#Esperanto
)

  1. (personal pronoun)
    he
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/he
Usage notes
  • Li is traditionally used as both a masculine and a gender-neutral pronoun, but since the 1970s generic usage has sometimes been criticized and is increasingly being avoided and replaced by "li aŭ ŝi". Some people think this is an imperfect solution which is inappropriately long, and since the 2010s it is additionally also criticized by some as being too exclusive to non-binary people. In response to such criticisms, there have been various proposals for new pronouns, but the only proposal that has been gaining some adoption is
    ri
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ri#Esperanto
    .
Synonyms
  • (person whose gender is unknown):
    ri
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ri#Esperanto
    ,
    ŝli
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%C5%9Dli#Esperanto

Related terms

  • ili
    https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/ili#Esperanto
    (they) (plural)

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