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When referring to an online comment, I want to say

I agree with this guy.

However, it's not gender neutral (See this ELU post.)

What other informal alternate word is there? 'User' seems too formal, so does 'person' or 'fellow.'

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  • 2
    I agree with this commenter.
    – mplungjan
    Aug 28, 2014 at 6:11
  • 4
    But Hey, guy is gender-neutral.
    – Kris
    Aug 28, 2014 at 6:20
  • 2
    You could always say "I agree with them" and be politically correct.
    – Kris
    Aug 28, 2014 at 6:21
  • 3
    Why not just use the commenter's name? 'I agree with user13107'.
    – Mynamite
    Aug 28, 2014 at 9:57
  • 2
    or I agree with this person. Or that person. Or the comment itself, because I may not agree with the person (we're not talking right now.) But I might agree with the comment. (If Hitler said it's a beautiful day, I wouldn't necessarily like the implication that I agree with that guy.)
    – SrJoven
    Aug 28, 2014 at 14:29

3 Answers 3

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You can also use I agree with 'em. It uses singular they which is gender-neutral, and the omission of th gives it the air of informality requested. Double bonus that written it can't be confused for masculine-only 'im like it can in speech.

If you really want to use this in your sentence, you could go for an informal form of I agree with this one, although to be honest I can't think the best way to write it. with this'n will get the right pronunciation, although perhaps with this 'n' would be the most formally correct (it's a syllabic n after this in speech) although likely confused with the 'n' of and.

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  • Downvoter want to explain their issue with this answer?
    – user0721090601
    Aug 29, 2014 at 18:11
  • 2
    This seems not only reasonable but superior to the other answers - 'the commenter', 'them' and 'this person' is clearly not as informal as 'guys', but "'em" is.
    – mikemaccana
    Oct 14, 2014 at 13:39
  • 1
    I did not downvote it, but I would have trouble answering with that because it's not a real word. I get that we use a lot of non-words in informal contexts (and I know many diagree with the whole concept of "real" words), but especially on ELU, it seems out of place. I just read a comment on another SE forum today that used slang to the point of being unrecognizable and it seemed out of place.
    – GlennFromIowa
    Nov 1, 2014 at 19:42
  • @GlennFromIowa what isn't real about it? One and them are both words... That there's an elision ('em) and vowel reduction ('n'), doesn't make them not real if people actually pronounce them that way and we want to represent that informal pronunciation (just as y'all'd've is perfectly real, contracting you all would have). I personally find any contraction out of place in formal contexts (in spite of things like don't and can't are creeping into academic papers with startling frequency), but I don't think any of us would argue *don't or *ain't or the like aren't real.
    – user0721090601
    Nov 1, 2014 at 20:00
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    @guifa Point taken. I guess what I was struggling to say is that it is not an answer that I would feel comfortable using, and that IMHO, it doesn't seem to fit. But then I also resist using singular they, so perhaps I'm hundreds of years out-of-date.
    – GlennFromIowa
    Nov 1, 2014 at 20:31
4

You could say

I agree with the commenter

or

I agree with them

or

I agree with this person

In fact, possibly the best is use their name (Kudos @Mynamite)

I agree with @jack

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  • Those alternatives are all far more formal than 'guys'. As the other answer notes 'em' is a more suitable replacement.
    – mikemaccana
    Oct 14, 2014 at 13:40
2

One possible option would be -

I agree with him/her.

Or even the parenthetical (s)

In my opinion, (s)he is correct.

But I think you could possibly omit the person in your case, using the terse

Accord.

Or, the simple

I agree.

Or, the more complex double negative

I do not disagree.

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4
  • That's creative and clever, but not what the OP asked (nor what I, now, want to know :)
    – Dan Bron
    Aug 28, 2014 at 17:32
  • @DanBron The last two seemed to exactly fit the OP question. Edited to change the order of the suggestions.
    – Elliott Frisch
    Aug 28, 2014 at 17:33
  • Those are definitely helpful, but they still don't help us complete the phrase "I agree with that X" (which, as I said, is why I l'd like to know). None the less, +1 for the gender neutral pronoun constructions.
    – Dan Bron
    Aug 28, 2014 at 17:37
  • @DanBron "I agree" does answer the OP question, is gender-neutral, and not too formal. Shortening the phrase is an alternative to completing the phrase, and in this case, still communicates the intended agreement.
    – GlennFromIowa
    Nov 1, 2014 at 19:54

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