Please, fellow pedants, come and tell me if this annoys you too.
I live in the West Country and often have to bite my tongue at this weird habit people have of applying a gender - usually male- to inanimate objects.
Many a conversation have I had with plumbers/builders/electricians/car mechanics who refer to their all manner of household or everyday items that they are in the business of repairing,etc that include the following type of comment:
" he's a good 'un" (my new boiler)
"He'll need replacing soon" (some part of my car")
"Ah, it's him that's the problem" (some pipe beneath my floorboards)
You get the picture.
Today when one of my bottles of milk in my weekly shop was leaking and the delivery driver kept saying"I think it's him that's leaking, I'll give you a refund for him, yeah he's the one with the hole",etc,etc I nearly exploded with the effort of not yelling " it's a bottle of milk!! MILK, not a person, an IT!"
IT is leaking, IT, you mentalist!!"
Why, just why?!