Itasan  +  180204 Sun, 08 Jan 06 09:26 AM Harry Potter UK Versioin: "Harry counted out five little bronze coins and the owl held out its leg so he could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then it flew off..." US Versioin: "Harry counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then he flew off..." In the UK version, the owl is referred to as 'it', while in the US version to 'he'. I wonder why. Thank you. Itasan Joined on Wed, May 11 2005 Japan Full Member 402

	MrPedantic  +  180302 Sun, 08 Jan 06 03:58 PM Hello Itasan It might easily have been "his" in the BrE version too. I would say that as a general rule in BrE, "it" distances the speaker from an animal, while "he/she" indicates a friendlier attitude. Though of course the latter is only possible if you know the animal's sex. MrP MrPedantic Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004 Veteran Member 12,592 ...opella forensis / adducit febris...

	pieanne  +  180319 Sun, 08 Jan 06 05:11 PM Yet, Harry's owl is Hedwig, and it's a she, if I'm not wrong... pieanne Joined on Thu, Jan 20 2005 South of France ...But I'm Belgian! Veteran Member 7,517 I'm glad to help, but I'm not a native! And please excuse my typos...

	MrPedantic  +  180452 Mon, 09 Jan 06 12:13 AM There appear to be other discrepancies: More US/UK differences. MrP MrPedantic

	Itasan  +  180482 Mon, 09 Jan 06 01:52 AM Thank you very much, everybody. This is the owl that delivered a paper. UK Version: Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, p. 72 US Version: Harry Potter and the sorcerer's tone, p. 62 Itasan

	pieanne  +  180528 Mon, 09 Jan 06 08:43 AM Thank you, MrP. That's quite interesting! pieanne

	YoHf  +  180637 Mon, 09 Jan 06 02:21 PM  Itasan wrote: Thank you very much, everybody. This is the owl that delivered a paper. UK Version: Harry Potter and the philosopher's stone, p. 72 US Version: Harry Potter and the sorcerer's tone, p. 62 Oh, I see Itasan... That's the owl that brought Hagrid his newspaper... YoHf

	pieanne  +  180639 Mon, 09 Jan 06 02:24 PM Oh yes, I've got it now! Silly me, he wouldn't have had to pay Hedwig! That's maybe when he couldn't use her... pieanne