Help ( English language)

boulevard · Post by **boulevard** » 22 Dec 2006 13:27

Hello everybody
I would be really grateful if somebody could answer my following questions.

1-While I was reading Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone ( US version) Page 4- paragraph 2- line 4, the sentence " he couldn't see a single collecting tin " came up, and I didn't know what that meant. A dictionary wasn't helpful, so I was wondering if somebody could explain this to me.

2-There's a character in these books called Sirius Black. He first appears in the third book ( HP and the Prisoner of Azkaban ). Now, the thing is : when we want to say that something belongs to Sirius, we write Sirius' escape (for example). Not Sirius's escape. At first, I thought this was because the name ended with us, then I started looking for examples, and remembered that we say Fares's book ( Arabic name which means a knight), Charles's desk and so on. I wondered why Sirius' not Sirius's.

That's it and thanks in advance.
Bye.

BlackKimono · Post by **BlackKimono** » 22 Dec 2006 15:02

I wondered why Sirius' not Sirius's.

The author just preferred it that way, nothing more.

With or without the extra "s", it's still the same thing.

"he couldn't see a single collecting tin"

As far as I know, there are no such things as "collecting tins".
So my guess would be that somebody is collecting tin but the subject is missing (typo?) or is single

.

J · Post by J » 22 Dec 2006 18:25

"he couldn't see a single collecting tin"
As far as I know, there are no such things as "collecting tins".
So my guess would be that somebody is collecting tin but the subject is missing (typo?) or is single .

This is an example of a collecting tin, used for charities
http://www.bbc.co.uk/ouch/images/featur ... 20x120.jpg

Quite simply a tin used for collecting something ! And "he" couldn't see a single one of them... Since you've read the book you may understand this sentence better than us as you know what context it was said in.

Lance Vogt · Post by **Lance Vogt** » 22 Dec 2006 18:26

A tin is another way of saying receptacle(specifically a can). Just an object to put things in.

BlackKimono · Post by **BlackKimono** » 22 Dec 2006 21:54

All right, then. Mystery solved, lol

boulevard · Post by **boulevard** » 24 Dec 2006 16:20

OK, then.
Thanks everybody for your help.

Merry Christmas.