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May 26

"Let" or "Allowed"

Hi! Can anybody check the first, or one of the first sentences of George Beauchamp (RMS Titanic)? He was "let" or "allowed" by an officer to board a lifeboat?, I want it perfect as it is going to appear on main page's DYK soon. Thank you and best wishes. --LLcentury (talk) 11:51, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

They both work, but "let" is kind of colloquial, so I would go with "allowed". ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 13:31, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That might depend on your version of English. The meaning required here is to permit someone to proceed ~~(rather than give permission)~~, and in British English at least that is "let" [1]. There are other things wrong with the article's introduction, probably best dealt with on its talk page. Bazza (talk) 13:39, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Bazza 7: @Baseball Bugs: Thank you so much. So, I am bit of confused, can anybody check the article (of course if you wish) if it goes in accordance with British English (the man was British), and what I need to correct? Thank you. Best wishes. --LLcentury (talk) 14:43, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Was he explicitly given permission, or did he simply board and no one stopped him? ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 14:46, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

@Baseball Bugs: Thanks for your quick following of my query. According to Encyclopedia Titanica and other sources cited in the article he did intend to board lifeboat #13, but was unsure as women and children first but was let/allowed by officer William McMaster murdoch or James Paul Moody (he didn't remember who was in the British Titanic Inquiry) with the condition of handling an oar. --LLcentury (talk) 14:50, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

The E.T. reference states "He was ordered into lifeboat 13" - nothing about let or allowed. (You shouldn't be giving Google as your reference.) Bazza (talk) 14:56, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

That fixes it. It reminds me of this one: Should one say "I feel good" or "I feel well"? Answer: "I feel fine." ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:28, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Perfect, so I was totally lost since English is not my native tongue. Correcting. Best wishes. --LLcentury (talk) 14:59, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Non-binary & gender neutrality in various languages

I wonder about gender neutrality in other languages and how it's changing right now, especially in languages with grammatical gender, especially in Romance languages, especially as it relates to non-binary people. There's not many inter-wiki links between different language wikipedias, the only one I could find was the French 'they singulier,' where they're apparently borrowed the English 'they.' I assume that Enbies take the grammatical neuter when possible; do they ever take the equivalent of 'it?' I presume not but who knows? Temerarius (talk) 18:24, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Here's one description of how some Russians have tried to overcome the difficulties: "Lost for Words: Non-Binary Russians Fight the Limits of Their Language". Lesgles (talk) 18:47, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

Somewhat the same question previously asked at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2019 February 13... AnonMoos (talk) 19:01, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

And by the same user. ←Baseball Bugs ^{What's up, Doc?} carrots→ 19:26, 26 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]