(posted;
Etymology page)
Today, would you let me ask silly question about pronoun?
Today, would you let me ask silly question about pronoun?
It is about the usages of "her, him, it; she, he, it". I think you all may know my English level(^^;) And I couldn't solve this nagging question even through checking with PC and no foreigner to ask.
I know the basic role and how I should teach. I'd really appreciated if you give me an answer how you use them in the daily conversation or in the blog comment. In the situation that you don't know the gender difference, how do you use them?
Whenever I see lovely picture of bird or animal in friends' blog post, I always get confused which one I should use.
How adorable the heron is! I love (her, him, it).
Look at that BMW. How cool (she, he, it) is!
I think her expresses the loveliness feeling you have for the bird well, haha. Are there any tacit role which one you use for particular animals or objects? What is more, what about car or airplane, etc... Or should it be always it？
Thank you very much for reading♡♡♡ It is excruciatingly hot and many heat stroke cases are reported. Hope you are doing fine in your corner of the world, my friends.
i know ships and boats have always been referred to as female: she, her.
ReplyDeletei think some classic vehicles are called female, also - sort of a way to say they are 'dear' or 'precious'.
as for birds or animals that we can't tell which sex they are, we often defer to male: he, him. that seems to be the most common way, to assume male instead of using 'it'. however, the proper way would probably be using 'it' or 'he or she is beautiful'. that gets to be a lot to type, so often folks just say 'he'.
hope that helps a little! :)
To Theresa,
ReplyDeleteOh My!!! Thank SO much for your deliberate explanation☆☆☆ I truly am happy to know all these♡♡♡
Wow, for birds male, I think the reason might be they are colorful than female. And for boat, ship, classic car "female".
I thought all of them should be female p;)
Love and hugs, xoxo Miyako*
Good question, Miyako san! As non-native English speaker, I sometimes wonder the same thing! For birds and animals, I usually use "he" or "it." Or sometimes "he/she." I use "it" for cars and such but often find "she" is used for ships and aircrafts. I think Japanese is convenient as we can often omit pronoun. What I find hard with Japanese is how to count! Like Ichiwa, niwa...for bunny. I think it can be very confusing for non-Japanese speakers. It is confusing to me..haha.
ReplyDeleteHi Miyako, how are you. I have been missing from Blogland for a while, just little visits here and there. I hope to be on schedule very soon. I did a post today.
ReplyDeleteIf we don't know the sex, we just assume "He" or "him". Some things are referred to as female, as another reader commented.
Stay cool, my friend! xo
To Tamago-san,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your comment, my dear Japanese friend♬♬♬
Oh, overall male for animals , which makes me really surprised(^^;) And for ship female, it reminds me the movie 'Titanic', haha. The luxury liner was refereed to female.
Yes, pronoun is still one of my weak point; even how to use 'for, to' still makes me confused p;)
How we count things in Japanese sure must be the hardest part for the people learning Japanese. When I teach English for children, they always have hard time grasping "ordinal number" and they sometimes say that why English have to have separate names for each month as we use numbers.
I guess you must have had hard time get accustom to both culture and language. I hope you are coping with summer heat.
Love and hugs from Japan, xoxo Miyako*
To Barbra,
ReplyDeleteOh, welcome back and thank you very much for stopping by, my friend♡♡♡
Love and hugs, xoxo Miyako*
Dear Miyako,
ReplyDeleteAs some of the others have said a ship is always referred to as a Lady or Princess or Queen.
Do hope you are coping with the summer heat dear friend, wish I could send over a cooling breeze from here.
Sending hugs and thanks for visiting me,
Hope you are enjoying the week
Love carolyn
The others before me here have answered this very well, my dear friend, so I will just add that I applaud you for always striving, always working on it. That is why your English is so beautiful!
ReplyDeleteTo Carolyn,
ReplyDeleteOh, thank you so much for remind me; come to think of it, many ships have these names on top♡♡♡
Your visits are always pleasure for me, my friend. Haha, long way to the fall cool breeze.
Sending you lots of love and hugs from Japan, xoxo Miyako*
To Shelly,
ReplyDeleteI really appreciate your sweet words and praise♡♡♡ Oh, how I dream or wish if I had your ability☆☆☆ I always admire your literary talent; reading your posts many times to learn p;)
Lots of love and hugs to my writer friend in America, xoxo Miyako*
'It' usually refers to objects. However, in Blogland, we sometimes get creative and tend to label objects w/ gender tendencies- like a dresser I repainted I might call 'she,'---even though it may not be necessarily be proper. Whatever you use in your language, we still understand you and I wouldn't worry too much! I think you have really mastered English for the most part. Remember, most American ONLY speak English, so you have WAY surpassed us in language ability!
ReplyDeleteDearest andrea,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for stopping by♪♪♪
Oh, I see what you mean and your precious art work is 'she'♡♡♡ It is really lovely to hear that. When I read your sweet comment, I felt like load of my mind :-) Thanks again for your kind words.
Sending you lots of love and hugs from Japan, xoxo Miyako*
Dearest Miyako sama,
ReplyDeleteYou has more question with English- Japanese,I believed it until incorrect consulting with some materials the Chinese are confusing not same meaning as Japanese,
I can thinking of japanese people are like to stay live in there on country.
I love very much with my country for my friend too Miyako san!
I has my family and they are more speek English...ha ha ha
Michiko
To Michiko-san,
ReplyDeleteYes, finding the answer for what we have trouble with is always wonderful, isn't it :-) I wish I had English speaking friend here (^^;)
I hope you are having a wonderful week.
Lots of Love and hugs to my Japanese friend in Australia, xoxo Miyako*
Dearest Miyako,
ReplyDeleteEnglish is so hard because there is no real female, masculine and neuter conjugation with pronoun. In the Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian and French language you have a clear definition. But you have to not get too worried; just choose and ready. Your language is great particularly if you count that there is absolutely no relationship from the Japanese base you must draw everything on.
You might find this link very helpful: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammatical_gender
Hugs of admiration to you,
Mariette
Dearest Mariette,
ReplyDeleteThank you SO much for your kind and thoughtful words, my friend!!! For the conjugation, your definition of ' female, masculine and neuter' was educational for me. Oh, you must have rich knowledge of languages and I think you have studied English hard. Not for fun but also inevitable thing for living in America.
Wow,thank you very much for the URL, I put it in my favorite(^_^)v I wasn't able to find the page. Today I was out all day, looking forward to reading it tomorrow. Need to cook dinner p;)
Thanks again to my friend in America, xoxo Miyako*
Dearest Miyako,
ReplyDeleteYou are quite welcome; glad you could use this. Yeah, the grammar is the hardest part in any language and even English being a very simple language, it often is even harder to choose... not knowing how to select. In the roman languages it is a lot easier (complicated yes, but very clear!) as it is in Dutch and German.
But you do so well.
Hugs,
Mariette
Miyako -- a lot of us who blog about birds and animals tend to give them human personality traits. I might say something like "the heron looks hungry. I hope he catches a fish."... I think it would actually be grammatically correct to say "it" when we don't know which gender the bird is, but most of us use he or she in such cases. Some people even give their cars names and personalities (but I don't do that).
ReplyDeleteYou are so good at writing in English! Your students are so lucky to have you.
for me, if I can tell the gender i use he or she. if I can't I guess if it is a living thing.
ReplyDeletefor plants too? yes. if it is a female tree, why not say she?
it is for things that never lived.
www.pagehalffull.com/humanyms or www.pagehalffull.com/eatenup
Dearest Sallie,
ReplyDeleteOh,'human personality traits!!!'♡♡♡ That is sweet description as I feel like giving animals and helpful items lives ♬♬♬ When teaching, I always have to follow the roles. There is no rule without exceptions p;)
Our language doesn't seem to require 'pronoun' or even 'subject' much compared to English. In Japanese; the closer relationship we have, the less subject we tend to use. Haha, I sometimes have to guess what actually my husband is talking about.
Cars are precious things, really understandable putting them personality.
Thank you SO much for your thoughtful comment, my friend.
I hope you are having wonderful week♪♪♪
Lots of Love and hugs, xoxo Miyako*
Dearest Pearl,
ReplyDeleteThank you SO much for your comments♡♡♡ Oh, female tree; never heard of that. It is SO lovely to know that English put more human traits for everything than Japanese♬♬♬
Lots of Love and hugs, xoxo Miyako*
well, I do. it confuses some English speakers. many like to say it for not clear gender, even if it is nursing mother cow, or a human, but to me that seems insulting.
ReplyDeletethere's a new pronoun zhe which is for male or female but it isn't very popular yet.
Dearest Miyako,
ReplyDeletecome on..you have a great English, not like mine ;).
I have those problems too. But Learning the languages with Latin basic,they have these female,male nouns.
so sometimes I adapted in English ;)
grammar rules such stressing indeed.
wishing you a great day
hugs to you
To Ayu,
ReplyDeleteOh My!!! You are multilingual person; I cannot imagine how you cope with living in Italy from Bali to Italy, which means from Indonesian to Italian and also you can handle English☆☆☆ Quite amazing and I cannot imagine how hard it would be. Haha, beyond me to understand what you mean "adapting nouns".
I really DO appreciate your sweet comments, my friend.
Lots of Love and hugs, xoxo Miyako*