• zweieuro@lemmy.world
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    5 months ago

    Non native so maybe it just gets lost, but I don’t get it?

    Is the error that the possessive ‘s is missing at ‘dogs’ ? If so, then its plural… I don’t get it ^^’

    • Hossenfeffer@feddit.uk
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      5 months ago

      Have you seen the bowl belonging to the dog? (The intended question of the asker. You’re right, it’s missing the possessive.)

      vs.

      Have you seen the dogs bowling? (The dad’s perfect misinterpretation.)

    • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldOP
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      5 months ago

      Yes, they forgot the apostrophe, so the Dad took “Have you seen the dogs bowl?” to mean “Have you seen the dogs go bowling?”

      • samus12345@lemmy.world
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        5 months ago

        While that gives the response more legitimacy, dads don’t actually care about the grammar and will make a smart ass response just based on how the question sounds.

    • Tyoda@lemm.ee
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      5 months ago

      Yep, that’s it. This way “bowl” becomes a verb and the sentence means “Have you seen the dogs play bowling?”.

    • lugal@lemmy.world
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      5 months ago

      You’re on the right track. The possessive 's is missing which would make it the bowl of the dog (as intended). The way it is written, “bowl” could be a verb as in “have you seen the dogs when they bowl”. Hope that makes sense and I’m a non native myself so not 100% sure myself