You claim to know Person X; do you not know his gender? I don’t know anything about him, so I would refer to him as “he” until you inform me of his gender, at which point I would use one of the gender specific pronouns.
I never claimed to know person X’s gender, and in fact I don’t, so I can’t inform you of it.
Anyway, to repeat my original question: are you asserting that, after I spend a conversation talking about person X’s job and his family and various other aspects of his life, a typical listener will understand his gender to not have been specified?
(On the theme of the post, I think that bluntness is most polite here—this conversation doesn’t look like it’s about to progress further without prodding.)
TheOtherDave did claim to know person X’s gender? Unlikely, given the point of the example.
TheOtherDave did inform you of person X’s gender? Then, to repeat the question: What is that gender?
Person X’s gender sure seems unknown to me. Do you know it? What is it, and how did you figure that out?
You claim to know Person X; do you not know his gender? I don’t know anything about him, so I would refer to him as “he” until you inform me of his gender, at which point I would use one of the gender specific pronouns.
I never claimed to know person X’s gender, and in fact I don’t, so I can’t inform you of it.
Anyway, to repeat my original question: are you asserting that, after I spend a conversation talking about person X’s job and his family and various other aspects of his life, a typical listener will understand his gender to not have been specified?
It seems like a simple question to me.
As a matter of fact, you did.
(On the theme of the post, I think that bluntness is most polite here—this conversation doesn’t look like it’s about to progress further without prodding.)
TheOtherDave did claim to know person X’s gender? Unlikely, given the point of the example.
TheOtherDave did inform you of person X’s gender? Then, to repeat the question: What is that gender?