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What You Missed About the Ugly Duckling

Joe Eames on April 16, 2020

When I was in London not too long ago at a conference, I had some thoughts about ducks. In the story of the ugly duckling, a young duck compares...
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bravemaster619 •

In the story of the ugly duckling, a young duck compares themselves to the rest of their family and notices how different and ugly they are. This goes on for some time, the duck believing that they are simply a very ugly duckling. Then the duck travels, and ultimately meets some swans, and realizes that they weren't an ugly duckling all along, but instead a beautiful swan.

"they" or "it"? If I hadn't heard the story, I might have thought the duckling regarded its family ugly, not itself. Do I miss something in grammar?