A pumpkin plant described as "she". What/who decides which gender? Is it all arbitrary?

A pumpkin plant isn't ordinarily given a gender and would usually be called "it". In this case, the person in question is personifying the plant by calling it "she", perhaps as a way of expressing affection for the plant. The gender (he/she) was chosen by the person.

It is in fact entirely arbitrary. Some things are traditionally one or the other, like ships being female, but you are free to decide what gender your pumpkin plant is.

Plants don't have genders in English. The writer is using one to say that they care for the pumpkin plant like a pet or a friend. People will sometimes give genders and names to other things they care about, like their cars.

i guess the owner decides? but typically its she idk why

It should be "it" but "she" is more endearing. It's apparently a very important plant to its owner. Back in the days of Old English, this language also had gender, but I don't think this is the remnant of that. It's somewhat common to choose "she" where there's no reason to choose any specific gender. For example, some books will refer to the reader as "she" - most likely a deliberate choice, because there's no real reason for it to be "he", "it" doesn't fit, but singular "they" would be best.

This is just meme-speak. A plant is an “it,” but sometimes, when we are proud of something, we pretend it’s a person and give it gendered pronouns. My basil plant is a “she” (Gertrude). My eggplant plant is a “he” (Derrick). But they could have been swapped. —— By convention, boats and countries are often “shes,” but this is poetic and increasingly uncommon.

Many plants reproduce sexually, so there are logically male and female plants. That’s how pollination works: flowers are all about sexual reproduction!(Some plants are male, some are female, some are both). Fruits (like pumpkins) are the ripened ovaries of plants, so you *could* call this plant “she,” but actually pumpkin plants have both male and female flowers on the same plant (they depend on pollinators like bees to transfer the male gametes from male flowers to the female flowers) so they are..bigender? Bothgender? More accurate to call the plant they, probably? It’s not common, though, even with gendered plants. Most people would say “it.” Also, some people just gender things. Many people call their guitars, boats, or cars “she” and even give them female names. I think it’s weird, but it is pretty common. That might be what’s happening here.

Usually, it'd be "it". But you can give anything a gender (or name) if you feel like it. If I had a cactus, I could call it Tom and then it'd probably be a he. If I called it Sally, it'd probably be a she. Overall, it doesn't mean much and is just some silly fun. Also, generally, you'd only give names and genders to your own things or things that no one owns.

>But I had no idea a pumpkin plant was "'she" as well. It's not, except in the mind of the person who wrote that. English does not have grammatical gender. There are a few things that are often referred to as female like ships, but that's a matter of tradition and increasingly outdated. Note that in languages that *do* have grammatical gender, the gender assigned to each word is arbitrary.

"is it all arbitrary" honestly kinda! there's general rules, but people break them alot cuz animate pronouns ar tied to respect and or anthroprimorphization (as seen in this case, they love their pumpkin plant so they talk about it like its a person)

They do the same with ships, cars, and even compost piles (I know this thanks to r/composting). As I understand it, it's the way to show affection towards an object.

Plants can be male or female sometimes. I’m not a botanist so I’m not sure if pumpkin plants are in that category.

Pumpkin plants technically don't have a gender, but people use male or female pronouns anyway sometimes. It's a form of slang. It's common for someone to refer to a car or a boat they really like as "she." 

You can call any sort of thing a he or she but it’s not a rule or anything serious. It’s like many people call their cars a girl. You could just as easily call it a he. It’s used to personify or humanize something. It shows that you have a personal connection with it.

Here, the speaker has some kind of connection with the pumpkin and thus humanises it with “she”. He is sometimes used, but she is more common for inanimate objects. That’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d say.

In my dialect (Australian) it’s very common to call inanimate objects she but seldom he.

It's arbitrary, but it is more common for people to refer to objects they have an attachment to as female. As far as I know that comes from sailing, where ships were often referred to as female. Then we started doing it with all sorts of things. Cars, boats, buildings, pumpkin plants, really anything you are fond of.

>I know only a few examples like a whale can be "she" What do you mean by this? Any animal can be a "she", provided its biological sex is female. I don't know of anything unique to whales.

Plants don’t really have genders, but sometimes people who care for them, either farmers or people who just enjoy planting, can name plants and give them pronouns. Much along the lines of people calling cars/boats girls or boys like: “She’s a beaut, took me across the lakes.” Referring to inanimate objects (or in this context a plant) with affection or just giving it a gender/pronouns for identification purposes.

Traditionally ships, cars, and guitars are "she"s, but there's no real rule about it. It's also not uncommon (especially among children) to assume dogs are male and cats are female. Pretty much everything else can be given either male or female genders when being personified.

A pumpkin in Spanish is "una calabaza" meaning it have a female gender. So could be an Spanish speaker.

It's just a convention. In almost all cases when personifying an inanimate object, we say "she". It's common to see this for vehicles, especially boats. Plants are less typical.

the narrator

The most correct pronoun to call an inanimate object is “it”. To make it more personal, showing a deeper connection to it, you could arbitrarily choose to refer to it using he or she. The only semi-real rule I can think of is that vehicles like cars and boats are more often shes than hes.

My monstera plant is named Rajeev (male) and my soon-to-be-identified cactus is named Anjali (female). it’s just a way to show affection. inanimate objects don’t actually have gender, we just treat them like they do if we really like them :D

Unlike other languages, objects don't have genders in English. Assigning them one is stylistic.

Flowers contain both male and female parts, or either sometimes, and some plants basically clone themselves either sometimes or all the time, but none of that really has to do with how humans decide to use pronouns for plants. I think people generally just pick at random. That person just likes this plant and is anthromorphising it a bit. Weirdly, I've noticed people tend to refer to insects as 'he', even though the vast majority of bees and ants are female, and most spiders you see - the bigger ones, who make webs - are also female. Ships are typically 'she', and I think most vehicles are as well.

By grammar rules whales and plants and anything not people should be "it" But especially with pets people don't like calling a pet it - so they will either arbitrarily pick he/she, use they, or use he/she based off of the sex of the pet. It is less common but still common with all animals ( with a whale if it's an educational documentary etc they probably will be using she for female whales). It's even less common for plants but some will just pick he/she, use she for all fruiting plants regardless of plant sex, or use she/he/they based on the plant sex (as some plants have different sexes and some don't) People use human pronouns for things and animals to personify or show love/care for it (which is why animals and especially pets are the most common example).

Pumpkins produce male and female flowers.

Grammar answer: It Reality answer She is used to designate affection. Exception answer Boats and very expensive cars are she. Objects with attachment, like my piano ( Joanna the pianna, the old girl of the blues) Boats had female figureheads and were linked to goddesses , probably as Vikings in Europe were the first long range seafarers and Ran was their Goddess of the sea. Sailors were men in those days, and they were men going on raids so a woman as a boat makes sense. Some say the sea is unpredictable, like a woman, changing very quickly and that's why it's a she for a boat. As English is influenced by vikings ( the days of the week are named after Viking gods and goddesses, Mon day = the moon, Tuesday ( Tyr the god of justice and war) Wednesday ( Odin or Wodin ) Thursday ( Thor) Friday ( fria the goddess of hunting, her sister Oestra was the goddess of fertility) Saturday ( Saturn, Roman I guess) and Sunday ( sun ) and are still in the language) I imagine ( probably wrongly) that it comes from here? Modern English only genders living things)

In English, we often use gendered language to refer to objects that we have a special connection to. The easiest example is ships, which are traditionally referred to as "she/her", even in the navy where they're often named after men. (E.g. USS John F Kennedy) We're fond of personification.

While a lot of these answers are correct the person posting may also be from an area which uses "she" instead of "it" in its slang. Where im from its quite common as a greeting to say "how's she going, bud?" Despite talking to a man. Or, when replying to someone asking about a situation, say "she's dickered" meaning it's all messed up. Im from southern Ontario in Canada if that helps any.

I identify this pumpkin as "nonbinary".

People who give genders and personal names to inanimate objects have their own rules for it. There are certain traditions, such as vehicles are often "she" but I haven't heard of one for plants.

English is almost entirely genderless in our nouns etc. However, there are things that, by tradition or simply by preference, get a gender assignment. Boats and Ships are often referred to as "She" - as in, "She's a good old boat, seaworthy and reliable." Some people give their car or other vehicles a gender, "She's a beauty" - when referring to a car. We have a few nouns that have gender forms, but the female versions are fading away quickly. Waiter - Male person who takes your orders and brings your food in a restaurant. Waitress - Female person who takes your orders and brings your food in a restaurant. Actor, Actress would be another example. In both cases, the male form is becoming the only form.

Random fun fact: plants can have sexes, ofc not genders, because they don't have a sense of identity, but they usually have different male and female organs, which can cause gender dimorphism such as different flowers, although they're usually hermaphrodites or simply alter between periods where they are male or female

Usually objects or plants would be called "it", and doesn't have a gender as he/she. However in this case the gender seems like it's chosen by the person instead. We tend to assign genders to things we personify, such as how you'll usually see people referring to their ships as "she".

It is ALWAYS appropriate. Few things have "assigned genders" (cars and boats, mostly, but you dont have to use she/her its just the norm). Everything is up to user wants.

Plants aren't gendered in English. This person probably personified them

Technically plants have genders, that's how pollination works. The fruiting plants are the females, so technically he's correct even if he's just saying it.

"Personification" is when you give an object human qualities in English. It can be whatever gender you want so long as it is consistent

In English, people (usually men) will call inanimate objects “she” as a term of endearment. Boats, cars, bikes, power tools, model trains, sheds, garages, and apparently vegetables can all be “she”.

we love to personify non-personified things! in english, boats, cars, and the ocean are all *she'd* if the speaker has an affection for the object. this has just transferred to pumpkins! i call my gaming pc a she, so it's funnier when i say "ah, she's having a rough time starting up. better give her a few minutes."

This isn’t something “formal”, usually it would be “it” but sometimes in the modern day people personify things that they like.

Got a new guitar yesterday, decided he was a “he”. There is no grammatical reason. I just wanted him to be a he lol.

Someone plug in the video of those people who "Let their pets choose their pronouns"

Just to add on to the other answers: While it's probably not the case here, some dialects might use he and she for objects more systematically. Mine uses masculine pronouns for countable inanimate objects that can't move (houses, books, tools, etc.), feminine for those that can move (boats, cars, bikes, etc.), and neuter for mass nouns (fog, sand, snow, etc.) So for example, if I wanted you to look at a shovel, car, and rain, I'd phrase it in these ways: "Look at him" (shovel) "Look at her" (car) "Look at it" (rain) It's not a common feature of most dialects but it'll explain a lot of weirdness you might see/hear from some people depending on where they're from.

I worked as a gardener for some time. A lot of gardeners in America are women and they tend to gender nearly everything with she/her. It's a neat quirk I don't see often in other groups here. But yeah, totally arbitrary. Objects or plants are occasionally gendered in order to anthropomorphize them or show affection for them. 

The most confusing thing for me is literally everybody calling a dragon — she

You get to pick the gender yourself.

Few nouns are inherently gendered in English, and even those are just culturally, not grammatically. There used to be a lot more, but in modern times the only things with a consistent gender are boats. You will often hear people referring to their boat as "she" or "her," this is a cultural thing that has been around for a while. Not sure how it started- if anyone else knows I would love to hear it!

English doesn’t have grammatical gender associated with nouns/pronouns that aren’t directly associated with a person’s gender. Gendered pronouns can, however, be used in place of neuter pronouns as a term of endearment. It’s very common for vehicles, especially boats, and countries to be referred to as “she” in the third person singular instead of “it”.

The person is being cute, by calling their plant “she.” Grammatically and culturally, plants are “it,” but sometimes people feel very fond of their plant and they personify it. For example, I call a tree in my yard “she.” We typically wouldn’t do that in a professional context. For example, if I were talking with a roofer and I mentioned my tree, I wouldn’t call her “she”- I would call her “it.” It is culturally traditional to call ships and some vehicles “she,” but it’s completely ok to call them “it,” which would be the normal default for objects. It *is* on to call a ship or certain vehicles “she” in a professional context, since it’s an actual established cultural practice, not just a cute personal thing. Otherwise, we only use “she” or “he” to refer to humans and animals (if that animal’s sex is known).

Makes the pumpkin plant cuter

Isn't the plant giving birth to the pumpkin?

boats have gender, but other objects don't. in this case, the plant is being assigned a gender to personify it and show affection.

It doesn't matter. They have both male and female flowers.

It is anthropomorphising. Giving human characteristics to inanimate objects, or in this case a plant. The plant is still an "it" a thing, but this person is denoting their affection for it by giving it a human quality in referring to it as she.

I mean... look at her... she's obviously a girl... Jokes appart, in portuguese Pumpkin is feminine...

Using male or female pronouns for a plant is ridiculous in English. Plants are an "it". Even those plants that have only male or female parts in their flowers, such as holly, are an "it", and you would say something like "it has female flowers" or "it is female".

Useless topic to be discussed. I consider this 20 seconds of my life waste considering i ve been wasting an hour in reddit

Its arbitrary. Giving it a gendered pronoun shows emotion and attachment to whatever object you give it to.

In English there are no official rules for that. People will use he/she/they for inanimate objects to personify them (it’s almost like an affectionate thing for inanimate objects). We slightly tend toward she for personifying inanimate objects, but calling a plant he or they in this context would not surprise anyone.

it's arbitrary, affectionate personifying. the only rule to this is that vehicles are "she" - any other object or animal of unknown sex can be either a he or a she. you decide based on vibes and connotations

I've tended to find that if something is good or working it's female, and if it's bad or not working it's male. For example if talking about a new working microwave you might say "oh she works like a dream" but if that same appliance breaks or gets old/dirty you might say "come on mister just work already". Also most vehicles tend to be girls.

thats prob not the case, but i often gender objects and animals by accident because my first language does that and i bring it to english out of habit 🙈

Native speakers sometimes just have fun with the language genders. For instance if you swat a fly and kill it you would typically say ‘I got him’ or ‘I got it’ despite not knowing the gender. Neither is technically correct but saying I got ‘him or her’ is very clunky. Sometimes it would weird to use the correct gender. We know any bee trying to sting us is female. But saying ‘she is trying to get me’ sounds slightly weird but also a little funny.

There's no rules. It's all arbitrary. It's just done to signify the person's affection for whatever wouldn't normally be gendered. The one exception to this is boats- they are also called "it" until someone is wanting to be affectionate, when they are ALWAYS "she". I don't know why. I call my plants he or she interchangeably when I want to be affectionate.

As others have said, plants don't usually have gender in English, and in this instance it is most likely a combination of affection and personification, and she would be used instead of he because she's going to make babies.

if its something youre fond or proud of you might say she. if its just some random thing you might say he, like another car in front of you or a stupid-looking animal

From a biological perspective plants can sometimes have distinct genders, but we don't use them in English.

Ships, for one thing, have traditionally been deemed to be female and called 'she/her' in English literature. People often refer to their vehicles as 'she/her', too.

People just really like doing that. You can call anything by she/her. A car, a plant, whatever

I feel like inanimate objects are always 'she', but I have no idea why.

As far as rules of the English language go, all non-human nouns are "it." Notable exceptions to this rule include: * SHIPS: Seafaring vessels have historically been referred to as "she." This is a cultural custom, rather than a rule of the language, per se. There are articles online from various marine organizations explaining the history here, if you're interested in looking them up. * ANIMALS, especially MAMMALS: If you know the sex of the animal, you can use "he" or "she" instead of "it." This is very common for pets, or something like a nature documentary that's trying to humanize and personify the animals it shows you. The sex of the animal must be known to you; if you don't know, the animal is an "it." You also can technically call animals with a known sex "it" anyway. * CARS or other PRIZED POSSESSIONS: Some people who are very emotionally invested in an object will personify it by giving it a name and a gender. You could name your car Bethany and start referring to it as a "she," if you wanted to. That one toy you loved to death as a toddler that you still can't bear to throw away, even though it's barely more than rags at this point, that might be "Bobo" and a "he." The person in the image you provided prizes their watermelon plant enough to consider it a "she."

People like to call inanimate objects she for some reason. Often you will also hear vehicles referred to as "the old girl" as well. I don't understand why either

Traditionally, in America at least, inanimate objects are sometimes described as " she".  But only as a pronoun, not with any other female nouns like "woman" . You'll often hear this way of speaking about cars by men. 

Yup! According to my wife the rice cooker, the oven and the refrigerator are boys and the microwave, kettle and toaster are girls.

"A gang is just one of the many things you can call she!"

it's a vibe

Arbitrary. But a lot of things get “she” quite often — cars, boats, guitars. E.g. When I was a kid, my dad would tell the employee at the full-service gas station to “fill her up with regular.”

Yes, it is completely arbitrary in English: inanimate objects are usually genderless (that is, they're referred to as *it* or *they*). Weirdly, though, there's an old British tradition of regarding ships as feminine. When they're launched, it's customary to say "*I name this ship* \[insert name here\]. *May God bless* ***her*** *and all who sail in* ***her****.*" (Cue a champagne bottle being smashed over its hull and a band striking up *Rule, Britannia*)