Gender-inclusive language isn’t typically something you learn in school, but its use is incredibly important to make life easier for nonbinary peers.

There are ways to practice gender-inclusive language beyond just respecting gender-neutral pronouns. For instance, replacing “ladies and gentlemen” with “everybody” helps include people who do not identify as ladies or gentlemen.

“Using gendered terms — such as “ladies [and] gentlemen” — is highly presumptuous, especially in today's society, in which many persons are aware that they don't identify as male or female and therefore are uncomfortable with this type of language,” Dara Hoffman-Fox, LPC, explains.

To help our nonbinary friends feel more included and safe around us, here are four more ways to practice gender-inclusive language:

Refrain from defaulting to "-man" in descriptors, i.e. “postman.”

Remove gendered language — like using “postman” as the default word rather than “postal worker” — from everyday speech. By not using a word ending in “-man” as the default phrase for a descriptor, we can normalize the idea that anyone can perform a job, regardless of their gender identity.

“When we speak about ‘mankind’ or ‘the achievements of man,’ what we’re doing is confirming the subconscious bias that men are intellectually, morally, and physically superior to women, which is clearly untrue,” Sam Dowd, a British didactics expert from language-learning app Babbel, says. “By using such language, we exclude women — and, for that matter, nonbinary people — from history.”

We can avoid erasing women and nonbinary people from everyday conversations by using gender-neutral descriptions. Some examples include:

Folks, folx , or everybody instead of guys or ladies/gentleman

, or instead of guys or ladies/gentleman Humankind instead of mankind

instead of mankind People instead of man/men

instead of man/men Members of Congress instead of congressmen

instead of congressmen Councilperson instead of councilman/councilwoman

instead of councilman/councilwoman First-year student instead of freshman

instead of freshman Machine-made, synthetic , or artificial instead of man-made

, or instead of man-made Parent or pibling instead of mother/father

or pibling instead of mother/father Child instead of son/daughter

instead of son/daughter Kiddo instead of boy/girl

instead of boy/girl Sibling instead of sister/brother

instead of sister/brother Nibling instead of niece/nephew

instead of niece/nephew Partner, significant other , or spouse instead of girlfriend/boyfriend or wife/husband

, or instead of girlfriend/boyfriend or wife/husband Flight attendant instead of steward/stewardess

instead of steward/stewardess Salesperson or sales representative instead of salesman/saleswoman

or instead of salesman/saleswoman Server instead of waiter/waitress

instead of waiter/waitress Firefighter instead of fireman

“Some people may argue that such concerns are unimportant, but if you consider that language is the primary filter through which we perceive the world, it’s obvious that it affects how we relate to and make judgments about one another,” Dowd tells Teen Vogue. “Until now, history has been written and told by men, to the detriment of others. Part of any attempt to create a society in which all people — regardless of gender, sexuality or race — have equal opportunities and freedoms is to use language that no longer excludes certain groups or creates unconscious bias.”

Just because a nonbinary person isn’t present doesn’t make it OK to use binary language.

Many nonbinary people aren’t as vocal about their identity and pronouns as others, and you can’t know someone’s gender by looking at them, Hoffman-Fox stresses. Nonbinary people reflect a wide variety of gender expressions and are sometimes still identified as male or female because they don’t present as androgynous.