Pronoun Trouble
Well, we have run into an interesting little language situation that I can’t help but think has something to do with my kids speaking two languages. But maybe I’m just sensitive to that and it might happen anyway. Personal and possessive gender specific pronouns are proving to be an amusing stumbling block for my 3-year old in English. She is always very friendly with other kids on the playground, and I can’t help but be a little embarrassed for K, especially when she is speaking with older children and confuses he/she and his/her. She is such a bright little girl and has no trouble conversing with adults and older children, but gets this one thing wrong. Could it have to do with that in Estonian there are no gender specific pronouns and everything is neutral? Either way, when I hear it I correct her with a friendly “Uh oh, you said the wrong word!” The funny part about this is that she says the same thing to me when I occasionally have a brain-glitch and say the wrong word accidentally. We have fun correcting each other. Hopefully the pronouns will work themselves out soon as it’s been a few months now. I’m not really concerned and am sure we’ll get past this quickly!
My son has pronoun confusion too. He often says, “Pick you up,” when what he really means is “Pick me up.” He also says he instead of she a lot. I think it’s a pretty common language stage if I remember correctly from those teaching classes I took all those years ago in college.
December 1st, 2008 at 10:17 am