this post was submitted on 07 Feb 2025
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In French, the plural they is the masculine ils for mixed gender groups, and only the feminine elles for groups that are exclusively feminine. On is a singular gender neutral form of they often used in situations with unknown gender.
I would use on for singular and ils for plural when talking about a non-binary person because that seems the most reasonable application of the language as I understand it.
However as a non-native speaker I would defer to whatever native speakers do. Can't say I know what the established best practice is.
Not a native speaker of French, but while "on" can be used as singular "they," it is much more often used to say "one," as in: "One could eat a meal." I think "iel" is better because it is distinctly a third person singular personal pronoun. Sure, it is not as well established, but it is in at least one big respected dictionary.