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In French we are not as surprised if « une personne » relates to a man and if « quelqu'un » is a woman. (Yet feminine words like « personne » which may easily refer to a man are quite rare, currently I can just think of « sentinelle », « estafette », « recrue », « ordonnance », all four from the military vocabulary BTW, « personnalité », « victime » and « connaissance » ; there are probably a few other expressions like « grande gueule »).

Even if you try to be less obvious with masculine terms (using « on », the plural, the second person,...), the rules of French are such that the masculine will still be present. Trying to be real neutral is harder and more non natural than in English.

It is perhaps why this matter is less sensitive than in English, at least from a male perspective (a female view would be welcome). The convention is to use the masculine; doing otherwise is more often than not a political statement.

Note that while the rule le masculin l'emporte sur le féminin is often stated and used, there is a quite strong usage to use feminine name for professions mostly feminine (for example, people will use institutrice to refer to the teacher of unknown sex for small children, the use of infirmières to refer to the whole profession is also common).

In French we are not as surprised if “une personne” relates to a man and if “quelqu'un” is a woman. (Yet feminine words like “personne” which may easily refer to a man are quite rare, currently I can just think of “sentinelle”, “estafette”, “recrue”, “ordonnance”, all four from the military vocabulary BTW, “personnalité”, “victime” and “connaissance”; there are probably a few other expressions like “grande gueule”).

Even if you try to be less obvious with masculine terms (using on, the plural, the second person, …), the rules of French are such that the masculine will still be present. Trying to be real neutral is harder and more non natural than in English.

It is perhaps why this matter is less sensitive than in English, at least from a male perspective (a female view would be welcome). The convention is to use the masculine; doing otherwise is more often than not a political statement.

Note that while the rule le masculin l'emporte sur le féminin is often stated and used, there is a quite strong usage to use feminine name for professions mostly feminine (for example, people will use institutrice to refer to the teacher of unknown sex for small children, the use of infirmières to refer to the whole profession is also common).

In French we are not as surprised if « une personne » relates to a man and if « quelqu'un » is a woman. (Yet feminine words like « personne » which may easily refer to a man are quite rare, currently I can just think of « sentinelle », « estafette » and « ordonnance », all three from the military vocabulary BTW, and « personnalité » ; there are probably a few other expressions like « grande gueule »).

Even if you try to be less obvious with masculine terms (using « on », the plural, the second person,...), the rules of French are such that the masculine will still be present. Trying to be real neutral is harder and more non natural than in English.

It is perhaps why this matter is less sensitive than in English, at least from a male perspective (a female view would be welcome). The convention is to use the masculine; doing otherwise is more often than not a political statement.

Note that while the rule le masculin l'emporte sur le féminin is often stated and used, there is a quite strong usage to use feminine name for professions mostly feminine (for example, people will use institutrice to refer to the teacher of unknown sex for small children, the use of infirmières to refer to the whole profession is also common).

In French we are not as surprised if « une personne » relates to a man and if « quelqu'un » is a woman. (Yet feminine words like « personne » which may easily refer to a man are quite rare, currently I can just think of « sentinelle », « estafette », « recrue », « ordonnance », all four from the military vocabulary BTW, « personnalité », « victime » and « connaissance » ; there are probably a few other expressions like « grande gueule »).

Even if you try to be less obvious with masculine terms (using « on », the plural, the second person,...), the rules of French are such that the masculine will still be present. Trying to be real neutral is harder and more non natural than in English.

It is perhaps why this matter is less sensitive than in English, at least from a male perspective (a female view would be welcome). The convention is to use the masculine; doing otherwise is more often than not a political statement.

Note that while the rule le masculin l'emporte sur le féminin is often stated and used, there is a quite strong usage to use feminine name for professions mostly feminine (for example, people will use institutrice to refer to the teacher of unknown sex for small children, the use of infirmières to refer to the whole profession is also common).

In French we are not as surprised if « une personne » relates to a man and if « quelqu'un » is a woman. (Yet feminine words like « personne » which may easily refer to a man are quite rare, currently I can just think of « sentinelle », « estafette » and « ordonnance », all three from the military vocabulary).

Even if you try to be less obvious with masculine terms (using « on », the plural, the second person,...), the rules of French are such that the masculine will still be present. Trying to be real neutral is harder and more non natural than in English.

It is perhaps why this matter is less sensitive than in English, at least from a male perspective (a female view would be welcome). The convention is to use the masculine; doing otherwise is more often than not a political statement.

Note that while the rule le masculin l'emporte sur le féminin is often stated and used, there is a quite strong usage to use feminine name for professions mostly feminine (for example, people will use institutrice to refer to the teacher of unknown sex for small children, the use of infirmières to refer to the whole profession is also common).

In French we are not as surprised if « une personne » relates to a man and if « quelqu'un » is a woman. (Yet feminine words like « personne » which may easily refer to a man are quite rare, currently I can just think of « sentinelle », « estafette » and « ordonnance », all three from the military vocabulary BTW, and « personnalité » ; there are probably a few other expressions like « grande gueule »).

Even if you try to be less obvious with masculine terms (using « on », the plural, the second person,...), the rules of French are such that the masculine will still be present. Trying to be real neutral is harder and more non natural than in English.

It is perhaps why this matter is less sensitive than in English, at least from a male perspective (a female view would be welcome). The convention is to use the masculine; doing otherwise is more often than not a political statement.

Note that while the rule le masculin l'emporte sur le féminin is often stated and used, there is a quite strong usage to use feminine name for professions mostly feminine (for example, people will use institutrice to refer to the teacher of unknown sex for small children, the use of infirmières to refer to the whole profession is also common).