Monday, January 05, 2009

No, please don't. That would be cruel.

3 comments:

kenju said...

LOL...surely they know what that appears to be.

Kay said...

Feeling too stupid for words, I beg you to tell me what it means--I want to send the post to a parrot-loving friend here.....

Happy New Year of the Ox (there isn't one for the parrot, is there....)

Badaunt said...

There is a shop upstairs from this sign called "Parrot." I do not know why it is called "Parrot." It is (I think, but am not sure) a second-hand clothes shop.

And it was, apparently, open at the time I took this picture.

This is, in fact, a brave and daring attempt at the use of the indefinite article, something my students find as baffling as this sign writer apparently does. And understandably so! I mean, would you rather have little money, or a little money?

Now try explaining the distinction to a person whose native language gets along perfectly well without using any articles at all, indefinite or otherwise.