![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Grammar with the aliens
Mar. 30th, 2008 11:15 pm"Did you know that there are more than six billion different species of fishes?" the aliens asked me, "That's a whole species of fish for every human alive."
"I appreciate the fact that you pluralized fish properly -- fish for one species, fishes for multiple species -- but that statistic you gave isn't actually true," I replied.
"No, but it's figuratively true. It's believable because it meshes with a popular principle, that there is more to your planet than your species can imagine. That counts as true, right?"
I sighed angrily, too annoyed to be anything but passive-aggressive.
"Sorry," the aliens said, and then they promptly began creating new species of fishes to make amends. They're like that sometimes. Sometimes I'm tempted to just stop working at this convenience store and leave them to their own devices, you know?
You know?
"I appreciate the fact that you pluralized fish properly -- fish for one species, fishes for multiple species -- but that statistic you gave isn't actually true," I replied.
"No, but it's figuratively true. It's believable because it meshes with a popular principle, that there is more to your planet than your species can imagine. That counts as true, right?"
I sighed angrily, too annoyed to be anything but passive-aggressive.
"Sorry," the aliens said, and then they promptly began creating new species of fishes to make amends. They're like that sometimes. Sometimes I'm tempted to just stop working at this convenience store and leave them to their own devices, you know?
You know?
