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enter image description here

As you see, it's not a strawberry, it's just a flower pot.

  1. This strawberry is fake.
  2. This strawberry isn't real.

Are these sentences correct?

I'm wondering after seeing this title on a YouTube video

Is This Food Real Or Fake?

Mari-Lou A
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  • You would use 'this strawberry' about... a strawberry. A real one. You could use scare quotes, maybe. – Michael Harvey Nov 29 '23 at 11:41
  • @MichaelHarvey Then, can I just say "a strawberry is fake"? –  Nov 29 '23 at 11:43
  • It is not a strawberry. It's a vase or flower pot made to look like a strawberry. – Michael Harvey Nov 29 '23 at 11:51
  • The idea of something looking real and instead being fake is a trend, I haven't seen the video but I'm guessing that the presenters are talking about cakes looking like pieces of fruit, or other food staples etc. You have to guess if the food you are seeing is real or a just a cake i.e. "fake" – Mari-Lou A Nov 29 '23 at 11:51
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    The photo example is not a good one, anyone who thinks that one of the vases could be an edible strawberry needs their eyes testing. It's obvious that it's a representation of the fruit in clay/ceramic form. You could say something like: This is real but that is fake (or vice versa) – Mari-Lou A Nov 29 '23 at 11:54
  • @MichaelHarvey Then, it's just an error in a casual conversation? But still meaningful? –  Nov 29 '23 at 11:55
  • @Mari-LouA Is it just because English is natural language? It's not logical but meaningful though. –  Nov 29 '23 at 11:57
  • @Mari-LouA Agreed, but I had a quick scan through the video and they are showing groups of 4 close-up images of what appears to be food, but when they pan back one of the items is something different. For example, 3 images of bacon and one of wood planks with a bacon-like grain pattern. Not at all like the strawberry vases. – Peter Jennings Nov 29 '23 at 11:59
  • My wife's friend has a 'plushie' aubergine toy. With two eyes and a bow-tie. He's called Gene. They would both be so annoyed if someone called him a 'fake'. – Michael Harvey Nov 29 '23 at 12:07
  • I fear that these comments have strayed away from the OP's question and into the merits of the image. It may not be a good example, but the two sentences are grammatically correct. – Peter Jennings Nov 29 '23 at 12:22
  • Calling it "this strawberry" seems fine. You'd say "this bear" with a toy bear or a model of a bear. – Stuart F Nov 29 '23 at 15:18
  • Can I just say "a strawberry is fake"? No, that would mean that some random strawberry was an artificial one. This is fine to mean the one in the picture I'm showing you. – Kate Bunting Nov 29 '23 at 15:30

2 Answers2

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First of all, it's odd that the question is about the word "this." There's no reason not to use "this"; it just means "the object at hand." I would suggest that your real question is whether it's okay to call it a strawberry. And I would say that it's okay, for several reasons:

  • We often refer to representations by using the same word as the thing they represent. If we lined up several flowerpots of various designs, and said "put it in the strawberry," our meaning would be clear. Technically, we do this every time we deal with images. There is not even a flowerpot on my screen right now; rather, there is a pattern of glowing pixels that puts me in mind of a flowerpot which puts me in mind of a strawberry. This is part of the idea behind Magritte's painting La Trahison des Images, in which he puts a picture of a tobacco pipe and the caption Ceci n'est pas une pipe—"This is not a pipe"—because, well, no, it's not a pipe, it's a painting of one. And yet he calls attention to the fact that we do often talk in exactly this way.
  • I think it's also OK because the sentence "changes our perception." The representation of a strawberry is so good that at first glance I did think it was one. When we're describing a change (in this case, a change in our perception), it's okay to use a construction that describes both the "before" and "after" situation in their own terms. For instance, we might say "the caterpillar turned into a butterfly," even though, afterwards, there is no "the caterpillar" anymore. Similarly, if the heroes of Scooby-Doo reveal that the supposed ghost was really a villain in a bedsheet, they might say "The ghost was just Old Man Jenner all along!" and we wouldn't fault them for using "the ghost" when in fact there was not one. This sentence uses the language of their initial perception ("the ghost") as well as their changed perception. So I think it's okay to say "this strawberry," just as the show Is it Cake might say something like "Is this handbag actually a cake?" I would say that you could use scare quotes ("This 'strawberry' is fake") if you wish, but you don't have to.
Andy Bonner
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No, you have to use quotation marks:

This 'strawberry' is fake.

Kyamond
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