I accidentally said "her" instead of "his", Does it matter a lot

What do you mean by "does it matter?" And what do you mean by "a lot?" If you meant to say one word but say a different word, it can change the meaning. If being accurate matters a lot, then it matters a lot if you are not accurate. He likes to play with her ball. He likes to play with his ball. If there are two balls and one is his and one is hers.... then you've lied (or said something untrue) if you indicate the wrong ball.

I think when referring to an animal, a mix-up like that wouldn't really matter in sense that I doubt anyone would be offended. With people, pronouns a much more important. In terms of logic/syntax, it matters even more so. "He likes to play with her ball" can have a different meaning than "He likes to play with his ball". Since there are two distinct pronouns in the first sentence, we can assume that there is another person/animal involved. (eg. "The dog likes to play with the other dog's ball"). Edit: The server had an error, and my post got duplicated a few times (sorry!)

"He" describes the subject as male, and "her" describes the owner of the ball as female, so either his sex changed halfway through the sentence, or the ball belongs to someone else. Native speakers will get confused if you mix up pronouns.

A native speaker will immediately catch it and ask for clarification on who the “her” refers to.  Is it a big deal? No definitely not, no one would judge you and I’ve heard native speakers fumble with words sometimes. But it’s a very obvious grammatical mistake.

“He likes to play with her ball” simply means the ball is not his. It’s hers. She owns it. Who’s she? We don’t know. It’s an unresolved pronoun, a pronoun to nowhere. You haven’t said anything bad, you’ve just left us unclear about whose ball that is.

It matters the better you get. Try using “the (ball)” if you worry

My friend had a Japanese roommate and when I’d call for my friend and Hiromichi answered, it was a 50/50 chance he’d use the wrong gender. IMO anyone more than amused by this error from a non-native speaker has deep-seated issues. I say it doesn’t matter at all, but some people can be so weird.

My wife does that a lot and it can be confusing.

Yes, but if you correct immediately not that bad

Well it changes the meaning. If your example it changes which ball he likes to play with. It can causes significant confusion in certain contexts

I do this all the time, I'm just awful with spoken pronouns for some reason. I correct myself when I notice it but usually people can pick up on the context clues and it's fine.

Yes, the gender of the people you’re talking about matters a lot. It is confusing at best and offensive at worst.

My boyfriend is a native Spanish-speaker and he also confuses his/her. I'm a bit used to it, but it definitely makes stories confusing. It makes you question who was doing what and what exactly happened.

I mean yeah? it's the antithesis of who you're talking about. a generic term would be "their" as in "their ball" Depending on tone and the audiance, you may instigate a fight with a mistake like that. Some people's egos are challanged with mere single words. (I'll just add, those people are figurative babies)

Yes but also no. In terms of people understanding you, it's the sort of thing that will confuse listeners but they should be able to work it out most of the time. Sometimes It could change the meaning though, if you've got several people in context you could be referring to. Also, it is jarring to hear a specific person being referred to as the wrong gender, whether that's the listener or someone else. It is worth noting that most people will be offended by deliberate or uncorrected misgendering (i.e. using the wrong gendered pronoun to refer to them). So it is worth putting the effort in to get these right, but no one reasonable will be offended if it's clearly a language learning issue. Relatedly, it's worth making sure that you don't use a gendered pronoun for generic uses - it's often taken (reasonably) as sexist to say e.g. "when the doctor sees you, he will..." if you're not referring to a specific person known to be male. A generic person who might be any gender should be "they". This is also a common thing I've heard from English learners, and it's worth being aware of.

Lots of non-native English speakers do this. It's can sometimes create a funny situation. Also, my 4-year-old does this too

Why are you asking if it matters? In your native language wouldn’t it matter if you used the wrong pronoun to refer to someone or something?

Yes. he is a male pronoun, and her is a female pronoun, so for you to use it he and her describing the same person wouldn't make much sense. You would need to uses his, or changes the he at the start to her

It certainly *can* matter. It is potentially confusing and you could cause offence by referring to a man as "she" or a woman as "he". It's an error you should definitely do your best to avoid.

it matters a lot actually

Yes it matters.

Yes lmaoo what??? They’re gendered pronouns.

It matters but if you're obviously a non-native speaker I don't think people will call it rude or anything like that, but you might have to clarify after the fact what you meant as you could still cause confusion.

Some people who go by all pronouns (he/she/they) would be okay with it changing mid-sentence. A lot of them prefer to have all of them interchange often.

Her?

it matters. but not a lot. just make sure you correct yourself when you can. very common mistake for non-native speakers whose native language doesn't have gendered pronouns.

It does matter, and you should correct yourself when you make this kind of mistake. There are two mistakes here that matter for different reasons: 1. You used two differently-gendered pronouns to refer to the same person in one sentence. This is likely to be confusing because it sounds like you're talking about two different people. The sentence may be heard as "\[person A\] likes to play with \[person B\]'s ball" which isn't what you meant. 2. You used a pronoun of the wrong gender to refer to a person. This may be considered offensive if done on purpose, but in this case it's pretty clear that it's a mistake, especially if you're obviously a non-native speaker. But just correct yourself, and be mindful in the future, and it will be fine. If the subject of the sentence is non-human (for example, a dog), then #2 is not a big deal, as it's not typically expected that you'd know an animal's gender unless it's a pet you're already very familiar with. The owner might correct you, but they won't take offense. But #1 is still a problem for non-human subjects -- even if you're unsure of gender, you do want to be consistent in which one you pick to make it clear that the pronouns refer to the same subject.

It’s wrong. It usually won’t lead to total thermonuclear war, but it matters at least a little bit.

What do you mean by "does it matter?" And what do you mean by "a lot?" If you meant to say one word but say a different word, it can change the meaning. If being accurate matters a lot, then it matters a lot if you are not accurate. He likes to play with her ball. He likes to play with his ball. If there are two balls and one is his and one is hers.... then you've lied (or said something untrue) if you indicate the wrong ball.

Yeah it does matter. At best you’re going to confuse people and at worst people may take offense (if they think you’re doing it on purpose)

Depends on how uptight people are


Yes, it matters. The listener can’t identify whose ball it is.

Yes. English speakers will get confused if the wrong possessive pronoun is used; if they think it’s intentional they may take offense. However, most English speakers will understand that if someone is learning English, it’s a mistake they may make and are very unlikely to be upset or take offense.

Yes, it matters, but not alot, unless it's a test. It would mean it's someone else's ball. Don't stress, you're doing good!

There are plenty of errors that wouldn't interfere with me understanding what is said with a little extra thinking. This one would trip me up. So I'd say yes, it matters.

Yes

As an native English speaker, even I can mix up pronouns when there are a lot. You can just correct it and move on, not a big deal

Whoever gives you a hard time over this is being rude and inconsiderate.