This afternoon we had a Meebo patron who was trying to settle an argument with her boyfriend over a question they saw on the quiz show "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" The question asked how many common nouns are in the nursery rhyme about Humpty Dumpty.
Let's see:
Humpty Dumpty sat on a wall
Humpty Dumpty had a great fall
All the king's horses and
All the king's men
Couldn't put Humpty together again.
Wall, fall, king, horses, men. That's five. While the patron didn't say what side of the argument she was on, our guess is that the use of "fall" as a noun here (and not a verb) was what started the argument. (If the rhyme was "Humpty Dumpty was having a ball / But Humpty Dumpty was going to fall," fall would be a verb.)
Meebo patron, I hope this settles it! If you have any other game show disputes, please let us know!
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The 5th Grader show said Humpty Dumpty is a common noun. It is not. It is a proper noun. The show was wrong.
ReplyDeleteWe haven't seen the episode, but you are correct. Humpty Dumpty is a proper noun.
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