girlfriend is an abstract noun

At age 45, T- came to our centre to upgrade his English. He was very self-conscious about his writing. He was amazed at my ability to write in a quick cursive script with upper and lower case letters properly in place. He said he had always written in CAPITAL LETTERS ONLY and he said, “I know it looks stupid and I hate it…” So T- had always left the writing tasks to his wife.

For homework, I asked him to write on the topic: Happiest Moment in Your Life.

He wrote about meeting the girl who became his wife. At the time of the story, he was living with a few friends. They were having a party and the girl came over with a few girlfriends. When he opened the door and saw the girl-who-would-be-his-wife for the first time, it was love at first sight. That was the exact phrase he used.

The other day, I was joking to a friend when he asked me, “Do you have a girlfriend?”

“Girlfriend is now a concept,” I said.

We cracked up laughing. My friend got a kick out of that response.

“A concept,” he thought out loud, “like compassion and God…”

“That’s right. Girlfriend is a concept. An abstract noun.”

He laughed some more.

“I should print that on a t-shirt,” I said. “Girlfriend is an abstract noun.”

The American Indie band, Cake, has a song called “Friend is a Four Letter Word”. I’ve always thought that’s a funny title. “Girlfriend is an Abstract Noun” would make a pretty unique song too.


drafted last Wednesday night 080820 at a coffee shop at Bloor and Royal York