Passing as a guy

[Andie Elisabeth]

A moment ago I was replying on twitter to my friend, I'm deeply closeted, and I had a problem to create an answer that would sound guyish so I wouldn't out myself. As a TG no one needs to know, as a TS, if I get to that point, it'll be visible and I'll not need to care to pass. But in the time in-between....

In my "native" language, read: the one I'm not using primarily in my internal thought processes, there is difference when I say 'I did ...' as a guy ('já dělal ...') and as a girl ('já dělala ...').

How would you deal with this issue? Outing myself ASAP? At least as a questioning?

[Michelle.M]

That's an interesting issue. I am bilingual and I have to make a conscious effort to remember to describe myself with feminine pronouns and verb conjugation. For me it's just like any other transitional issue - it takes careful attention until it becomes so normal that you don't have to think about it

[Traci Elizabeth]

Isn't that true of most languages? They have masculine and feminine spellings and pronunciations.

[Michelle.M]

In most languages, yes. English really only has male and female second person singular pronouns. In other languages it's far more pervasive. Slavic languages even have multiple variations on verb conjugation, called declensions, that are a gender nightmare.

I was in a movie theater today and chatting with the man in the seat next to me while we were waiting for the movie to start. He asked me if I liked a certain kind of film, and I responded that I did, ever since I was a girl. For the haphazard use of the wrong letter on the end of my chosen word I would have said "ever since I was a boy."

[Andie Elisabeth]

For the time being I made a statement on 2 SN saying simply: If I make mistakes in declension and/or conjugation it is because I haven't switched my mind into Czech mode.

[Andie Elisabeth]

Isn't that true of most languages? They have masculine and feminine spellings and pronunciations.

To make a point:
I did já dělal
you did ty jsi dělal (guy), ty jsi dělala (girl)
he did on dělal
she did ona dělala
it did ono dělalo

For more info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_declension
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Czech_conjugation

[Frances]

I am French speaking, and everything is gendered, like it is with all romance languages. I have fully transitioned and am mostly stealth, at least I don't talk about it, but I have a hard time telling stories about events from my life without making language-based mistakes. I have outed myself accidentally a few times. It is much easier to avoid gendered language in English.