vis

Vis is a pronoun that can serve the same grammatical function as his or her (as in That is vis book) OR his or hers (as in That book is vis), except that it’s gender-neutral. Vis is typically used by people who identify as nonbinary or genderqueer, meaning that their gender identify falls outside of the strict binary of only male or only female.

For those who identify in one of these ways and who are deciding which pronouns to use, there are a lot of options.

A pronoun similar in function to vis is xis. Both can be used in ways equivalent to both nonbinary them and nonbinary their.

However, it should be noted that these shouldn’t be considered synonyms of vis in the sense that they are interchangeable when referring to the same person—the pronouns the person has specified are the ones that should be used.

Vis is often used as part of the ve/ver/vis set of pronouns, but it may be used as part of other, similar sets, such as ve/vir/vis.

In the next section, we’ll break down some of the nonbinary pronoun sets that people use.

First and foremost: if someone says they use vis as one of their pronouns, that’s what you should use when referring to them. Some people might use a mix of pronouns, such as vis and their/theirs, in which case you can use either one, or both at different times.

There are a lot of different nonbinary pronouns, and it can seem overwhelming. To help, here is a chart of some (not all) nonbinary pronouns, along with the grammatical function of each one to help you understand how they’re used (and conjugated).

You can plug each set into this sentence to see how each pronoun is used:

[Column 1 subject form] told me to text [column 2 object form], but I don’t have [column 3 possessive form] number. 

subject form  (same grammatical function as he, she, and nonbinary they)	object form  (same grammatical function as him, her, and nonbinary them)	possessive adjective form (same grammatical function as his, her, and nonbinary their)
ve	ver	vis
ve	vir	vis
ve	vir	vir
xe	xem	xyr
xe	xim	xis
xe	xir	xir
xe	hir	hir
xie	xem	xyr
ze	zir	zir
ze	zan	zan
zie	zir	zir
zhe	zhim	zhir
sie	sier	sier

In many (but not all) cases, the possessive pronoun form (the one equivalent to theirs, as in That book is theirs) is simply formed by adding –s to the possessive adjective form (the one that’s equivalent to their). Sometimes, it’s the same as the possessive adjective form, as in That is vis book and That book is vis. The reflexive form (the one equivalent to themself) is often formed by simply adding -self to the object form (the one that’s equivalent to them): verself.

Vis can be used as the possessive form of the personal pronoun ve. Like it’s equivalent their, it’s often considered a possessive pronoun, but it functions as a possessive adjective (also called a possessive determiner).

Like their, vis is used along with third person pronouns (like they and them), which refer to anyone other than the person doing the addressing (first person) or the ones being addressed (second person).

Vis can also be used in the same way as singular theirs—as a predicate adjective showing possession.

Regardless of its grammatical function, vis is what’s called a neopronoun. A neopronoun is a gender-neutral pronoun that has been recently coined to fill the lack of gender-neutral options in English (not all gender-neutral pronouns are neopronouns—singular they, them, their, and theirs have been used for a long time).

For more, check out our guide to gender-neutral pronouns.

And our guide to gender-neutral language.