Misadventures in Turkish: “What can you do with a knife?”

Turkish class. Students have just learned the abilitative mood. İnce, 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.

İnce: A ball!

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

İnce: True. What about a pen?

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

İnce: Good job! A bowl?

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

İnce: A knife?

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

İnce and class: …

İnce: What about a  shoe?