[Grammar] "The secret of HIS nose" is correct? (the nose of a train)

[VillaCarlosPaz]

I watched a video which title is "団子鼻新幹線の秘密 The secret of his nose : Shinkansen 0 series". I would like to know if the title of this video is correct.

Shinkansen is a train, a vehicle, a thing, an object. Is right to use "his" for objects like trains?

 

[englishhobby]

Everything is possible in art - trains can be personified and have noses.:lol:

 

[charliedeut]

Hi,

Most often, ships are referred to as 'she', as well as cars and motorbikes (my bike's name was 'Mafalda', after the Argentinian comic strip character). So I don't see why a train can't be referred to as 'he'.

charliedeut

 

[5jj]

Most of the engines on Sodor are male.

 

[VillaCarlosPaz]

I didn't know it. Can I use "his" or "her" for objects?

What is the way to know if I must use "his" or "her"? Can I say "The secret of her nose"?

How can I know if an object is he or she?

 

[Barb_D]

Most objects are "it" unless we have an emotional attachment to them, as many people do for their cars. Ships are "she."

When things are given human characteristics (Thomas the Tank Engine, for example - I don't know Sodor), then they take human pronouns.

 

[5jj]

Thomas the Tank Engine, for example - I don't know Sodor

I gave the link in post #4. Sodor is where Thomas lives and works.

 

[Barb_D]

Oops. One does not simply link into Sodor!
(LOTR reference there.).

 

[HelenaHaden]

We cannot use "his" or"her" as it is not a human . I think, there must be used "its head", I am also not sure about "nose".

 

[5jj]

We cannot use "his" or"her" as it is not a human .

We can, in some contexts, as several native speakers have pointed out.

 

[Tdol]

We cannot use "his" or"her" as it is not a human.

There is no rule that says we cannot use he/she for non-human things or beings. People routinely refer to their pets as he/she, and she is commonly used for ships/cars, etc. With animals, we tend to use it for animals that we are not close to, so a cow is usually it even though we know the gender, but a cat or dog that lives with us is not. Pronoun choice is not simply dependent on whether it is is human or not, whether we know the gender, or even whether it has a gender.

 

[VillaCarlosPaz]

I'm grateful for your answers.

 

[birdeen's call]

There is no rule that says we cannot use he/she for non-human things or beings. People routinely refer to their pets as he/she, and she is commonly used for ships/cars, etc. With animals, we tend to use it for animals that we are not close to, so a cow is usually it even though we know the gender, but a cat or dog that lives with us is not. Pronoun choice is not simply dependent on whether it is is human or not, whether we know the gender, or even whether it has a gender.

I have noticed that English speakers commonly use "he" for animals of unknown sex or ever for hermaphrodite animals. Do you think "it" is more common? I believe I hear "he" more often, but the difference isn't great. I rarely hear "she" in such cases. I'm very sensitive to this because my language has retained grammatical gender, and hearing someone call a parrot (which is a she in Polish) a he always gives me a feeling of dissonance.

 

[TheParser]

Hello:

There is a saying that when you hear hooves, think of horses -- not zebras. In other words, think first of the obvious.

I suspect that the person who translated the Japanese title into English was a person who was not completely fluent

in English. (Many years ago, someone titled his book English As She Is Spoke. He really (= in fact) thought that he knew

English well enough to write a book! I think that this is another example of someone whose translation abilities need

some improvement.)

*****

I did some googling, and it's pretty clear that there is no excuse for the "his." Here are three sentences (among many)

that I found:

"The production processes of a Series 700 Shinkansen train including its nose structure."

"The 700 Shinkansen is characterized by its flat 'duck-bill' nose."

"[The bullet train] gets its nickname from its rounded nose."


Sincerely yours,


James