By Connor Mendenhall

Turkish class. Students have just learned the abilitative mood. Ä°nce, the instructor, is holding up pictures of common household objects, and students are practicing their grammar by describing what they can and cannot do with them.

Ä°nce: A ball!

Kathy: You can throw it, but you can’t eat it.

Ä°nce: True. What about a pen?

Henning: I can write a letter, but I can’t write an email.

Ä°nce: Good job! A bowl?

Jennifer: You can eat soup, but you can’t eat a sandwich with it.

Ä°nce: A knife?

Connor: I can rinse it in a sink to wash off the blood, but I can never scrub away the human stain.

Ä°nce and class: …

Ä°nce: What about a  shoe?