The spring quarter started up yesterday, and I’ve already heard an amazing snippet from one of my classes. Sitting in my math class, waiting for the teacher to arrive, and listening in on the conversations going on around me:
Girl 1: Yeah, I was watching Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader? a while ago, and I saw the one where they were asking the person about pronouns. I thought that was so crappy of them.
Girl 2: Yeah, I know! I mean, I don’t even know what a pronoun is.
Girl 1: Oh, I do. A pronoun is just like a noun, really, the whole person, place, or thing. The “pro” in “pronoun” is an abbreviation for proper. I thought it was sneaky how they were trying to trick the person with that.
Girl 2: Yeah, that’s pretty low…
It was at that point that I leapt into the fray and informed them that no, a pronoun is not “just like a noun”, and that the “pro” in pronoun does not stand for proper.
I’m still amazed. Coming from the mouth of a university student!
I’m probably being unfair, though. Being a language geek, I know what it is. I’m sure I’d be idiotic in other areas… I know for a fact that my geography skills are horrible, including for my own country.
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April 3, 2007 at 8:38 pm
Justin V
Sounds like some of the girls I know on campus. LOL. Actually most college students don’t know what adversb, prepostiions etc. are.. It’s scary, but i guess your right, maybe wel all balance out.
April 4, 2007 at 8:19 am
Fig
Oh my. On more than one count.
April 4, 2007 at 8:43 am
pelf
You know, I never really paid much attention when my English teacher talked about pronouns and what-have-yous. I only know my adjectives and verbs. And whenever somebody asks why I used “this and this” instead of “that-and-that”, I just tell them “because it sounds nicer that way”. Hhaha
April 6, 2007 at 10:08 am
Josh
pelf: Yeah, I actually think a lot of people are like that. They can’t tell you the parts of speech, but they can tell you that “Me is sick” and “Bob taked the gun” are both incorrect. It’s just that being a total language geek, hearing someone say that “pronoun” means “proper noun” made me cringe.
I’m sure a geography nut would cringe if they asked me to pinpoint something and I put it on the other side of the continent, which, by the way, is highly plausible.