What if the gender is unclear in a context?

Question

I want to say 'the person who scores the most points is the winner', and 'the winner' here can be either a male or a female. Is it appropriate to use the male form 'el ganador'?

In general, in contexts such as this where the gender of any person or thing is unknown (or can be either), what do we use? The male, the female, or is there a 'genderless' form available?

• Usually, in English it just reverets to the masculine form in those cases (in the next sentence talking about the winner it would be "he"). Likely, Spanish does the same. - Jadey7 Jan 20, 2012

Answer 1

Here you are talking about the "person" who will be the winner. Because la persona is feminine, I believe that you would use la ganadora.

Someone who knows grammar better than I do might explain that "who will be the winner" is called something like an "adjective clause", which means that the whole clause is essentially an adjective, and therefore should agree with the subject in gender.

Comments/edits are welcome!

Answer 2

And the second a male wins he becomes el ganador. Thus one second la ganadora and the next el ganador. I think this belongs in the Not So Serious Grammar Discussion thread.

• You are right! This should definitely be added to our list! - MLucie Jan 20, 2012

Answer 3

Si estas usando la palabra "persona" puede ser hombre o mujer. La persona que haga mas puntos es o será la ganadora. Y si quieres usar la palabra "ganador" en masculino pero que pueda ganar una femenina. Quien haga mas puntos es o será el ganador. Cuando hay hombres y mujeres por supuesto. Si hay solo hombres puedes usar. " La persona o El que haga mas etc." Si hay solo mujeres. "La persona o La que haga mas etc."

Answer 4

I found this:

la persona más rápida será la ganadora.

I believe that Frank is correct.

Answer 5

Thank you to all who have responded! I get the idea now.

Am I right to say that 'la persona que haga mas puntos es la ganadora', but 'el equipo que haga mas puntos es el ganador'?