Re: Alumnus award? Alumna? Alumni?

Date: Mon, 26 May 2003 01:14:44 -0700
Newsgroups: alt.usage.english
Size: 760 bytes

Michael Hamm wrote:
> Somehow, though, I get the impression that your question was rhetorical,
> and meant only to imply that one or more of my five statements was wrong:
> (1) Basketball there is not the ball
> (2) (the plural of which is basketballs)
> (3) but the game
> (4) (which has no plural).
> (5) Perhaps ... deodorizer.
> Or, perhaps, to imply that there was something wrong with the way I wrote
> my previous post.
>
> Which of these six has a probem? And what it is?
"Basketball there is not the ball" sounds like the product of the unnatural
mating of a Zen koan, a Douglas Adams line, and a hip-hop lyric. But
I know how hard it can be to afford commas on a student budget. I think
there's someone around here who gives them away for free.