Can "tu hijo" refer to a child of either sex?

Question

Ok, I am asking because, I understand that when you say things like, Enseña a tus hijos sobre Dios., the "hijos" is an inclusive term that could refer to girls and boys. The same thing with "tus maestros," "tus amigos," "tus vecinos," etc. But is that only in plural? If I want to have a sign in my office that says something akin to "Teach your kid about compassion and tolerance," could I write, "Enseña a tu hijo acerca de la compasión y la tolerancia"? Or should necessarily change it to plural in order to make it gender-neutral? Is "tus hijos" ok for messages in which the target audience nmay or may not have just one kid?

I simply want to write, very specifically, a gender-neutral imperative sentence that could preferably apply to all parents, whether they have 1 kid, or 10.Could this work?

"Enseña a tus hijos acerca de la compasión y la tolerancia"

Thanks for your help!

In addressing a group with a child, or children, of non-specific gender, the plural would seem best. - kmaakheru, Oct 15, 2011

Answer 1

I don't think that «Teach your children about compassion and tolerance» excludes parents that only have one child; any more than «Teach your child about compassion and tolerance» is addressing only parents with one child.

Go with either. Spanish uses the masculine gender when the sex of one animal is unknown or unimportant (el gato...we don't know the sex or it is irrelevant). If you look in the dictionary for child you will find niño(a) or hijo(a) depending on whether the sex is known or relevant.

I would use either niños o niño depending on whether you go with children or child. I think that either statement as an impersonal, command works.

I also wouldn't use tu for this impersonal command. Go with su or sus and use the formal command for of the verb.

These days (perhaps not everywhere) this use of the informal address is quite common. At least half of the announcements/advertisements that I see in the subway/buses/TV use the familiar. - samdie, Oct 15, 2011

Answer 2

Regarding the choice between formal/informal address:

About 50 years ago, when I spent a couple of summers in Mexico, there was an advertisement that seem to appear about every 15 minutes on the radio (probably on television, too) that went "¡Goce la vida! ¡Goce la vida! Con Carta Blanca exquisita." (formal imperative).

These days, The TV ads reflect a mix of formal/informal address (with no discernible pattern). This is in New York where we have a substantial Puerto Rican population but also many Mexicans and fewer (but significant) numbers of people from the rest of the Caribbean and central/South America.

Regarding the "gender" of the reference: This has been (for some) a long standing problem for all languages that have "grammatical gender". Latin and Greek had (and German has) a "neuter" gender but it it was/is not used to avoid to avoid implications of sex. It was simply the case that all nouns had a grammatical gender (which has little or nothing to do with biological sex) and the adjectives that modified them had to agree in gender and number. English used to have grammatical gender but it has disappeared except for a few pronouns.

In Spanish it would be entirely acceptable to say "Unas persons llamaron a la puerta." (Some people came calling. / Some people called at the door.) "personas" is a feminine noun (and, thus, takes, a feminine adjective). This in no way implies that they were all (or that any of them were) women. It's simply that "persona" is grammatically feminine.

Modern "feminists" would like for there to have been a "sex neutral" term (such as the ugly "s/he". Even hundreds of years ago, there were writers in in English that bemoaned the lack of such a word to refer to people (and avoided indication of sex). However, such was not the case. The languages that had a "neuter" gender" did//do not use it to avoid sex "bias" (it simply reflects/reflected the grammatical gender of the noun).

Answer 3

Where would you like to use that? In which country?

Hola, Heidita. It's here in the United States. - JsandersAmiga69, Oct 15, 2011

Heidita's question is very much on point. Usage differs according to the place and time. - samdie, Oct 15, 2011

Answer 4

That's right "tus hijos" works as a neutral pluralism in Spanish, as in the examples you gave.

When addressing a group of people generally the male noun is used, though it's usual and more inclusive use both as in "los maestros y maestras de nuestra comunidad" for example.

Your sentence works well and it's perfectly acceptable and understandable.

Cheers

Answer 5

Hola, Heidita. It's here in the United States. - JsandersAmig

In this case, I would rephrase and use the usted form:

"Enseñen a sus hijos acerca de la compasión y la tolerancia"

Mejor:

Enseñen a sus hijos tener compasión y tolerancia.

Thanks, Heidita! So, I don't need an "a" between "hijos" and "tener compasión y tolerancia"? - JsandersAmiga69, Oct 15, 2011

Answer 6

Thanks! I wonder what native Spanish speakers feel about this.