Samuel Johnson

One day Doctor Samuel Johnson, the famous writer who made the first English dictionary, went to a fish market with his friend. He told his friend that he could make one of the women who sold fish become angry.

“I will not even say one bad word to her,” he added. Then he went up to one of the women, picked up a fish, and smelled it. He made a face to show that the fish had a bad smell.

The woman became very angry and shouted many rude words at him. Doctor Johnson calmly said, “You are an article, woman.”

“You are an article yourself!” she cried.

Johnson continued, “You are a noun, woman! You are a pronoun, I say!”

The poor woman did not understand these strange words, so she only shook her fist at him and shouted more angrily.

“You are a verb,” said the Doctor, “an adverb, an adjective!” And with every new word she became even angrier, because she did not know what the words meant and could not answer him.