Hey! An American kitten.![]()
Was??? What happened to it?
What a great life... sitting in the warm sunlight.
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A little question here... At first, I wrote «he» as a pronoun for the cat (didn't know at that time that it was a female), but when I read my post I found out that I did a mistake (At least I thought I did) by using «he» instead of «it». Now I just notice that you also used «She» instead of «it». Is it OK to use «he/she» for an animal? Is it «it» when the sex is unknown and «he/she» when it is known? Is it always acceptable or just on casual talk. Is it acceptable in the US and UK? I thought I did a big mistake, but maybe I didn't after all. In french, we don't have «it». Even «chair» and «desk» takes «he» or «she». Those who are learning French often say that the hardest part in learning French is knowing if a table is female or male.
Thanks for clearing that out for me.
As someone who has (I'm embarrassed to admit) been involved in a debate over proper grammar and usage in these forums, perhaps I can offer some insight. In high school (for me, that was over 20 years ago), my English teacher was adamant that for all pets ("no matter how much we love them," in his words), the correct pronoun is "it." As a kitty afficianado, when the gender is known, I think it's highly appropriate and proper to use the correct gender pronoun. But then I've been known to take the proper usage of the English language into my own hands, and be damned with the consequences. I'm not sure this really helps you, and in any event, if you know the cat's given name, using that is always appropriate.![]()
That's funny.
I tend to think of dogs as boys and cats as girls too.
I don't think my VERY male cat Lynx appreciates that attitude!
Actually the hardest part of learning English is to learn that gender is not pronoun issue for inanimate objects or animals in the general scope!![]()
Newman said:hardest part in learning French is knowing if a table is female or male.