Gender-inclusive writing: Repeat the noun

On this page

• Introduction
• Guidelines for repeating the noun
• Advantages of repeating the noun
• Additional information

Introduction

You probably learned in school to avoid using the same noun more than once in a sentence. This is usually because the reader doesn’t need the same information twice. However, one way to write inclusively is by intentionally repeating a noun, a technique that can help you avoid gender-specific pronouns.

Guidelines for repeating the noun

Ask yourself these questions:

• Are there many words between the first use of the noun and its pronoun?
• Does the sentence have more than one noun?

If the answer to either of these questions is yes, try repeating the noun to make the sentence both clear and inclusive.

If the sentence is short or if repeating the noun would force you to use the noun more than twice, you may want to consider other gender-inclusive solutions.

Advantages of repeating the noun

If your sentence has more than one noun, repeating the noun has an advantage over other gender-inclusive solutions: it prevents ambiguity.

Of course, to replace a gender-specific pronoun, you can also use the singular “they” (see our article Gender-inclusive writing: Use the singular “they”). However, using this technique in sentences that have more than one noun can sometimes lead to confusion. Repeating the noun, on the other hand, adds precision and can be a useful inclusive technique for legal writing or other formal contexts where you need to avoid all ambiguity.

Additional information

• Inclusive writing – Guidelines and resources
• Inclusive writing: Glossary
• Gender-inclusive writing: Use the singular “they”