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Non native so maybe it just gets lost, but I don't get it?
Is the error that the possessive 's is missing at 'dogs' ? If so, then its plural... I don't get it ^^'
Yes, they forgot the apostrophe, so the Dad took "Have you seen the dogs bowl?" to mean "Have you seen the dogs go bowling?"
Oohhh OK, now I get it. I was missing that 'bowl' is short for bowling.
You could also read it as a vowel.
(in bowling) to roll a ball along a smooth surface during a game of bowls or bowling
(in Cricket) to throw a ball towards a batsman (= the player who hits the ball) using a vertical circular movement of the arm while running:
It's not short for bowling (although it can be expressed like that too), it's the infinitive form of the verb, to bowl. "Have you seen the birds fly?"
While that gives the response more legitimacy, dads don't actually care about the grammar and will make a smart ass response just based on how the question sounds.
Have you seen the bowl belonging to the dog? (The intended question of the asker. You're right, it's missing the possessive.)
vs.
Have you seen the dogs bowling? (The dad's perfect misinterpretation.)
You're on the right track. The possessive 's is missing which would make it the bowl of the dog (as intended). The way it is written, "bowl" could be a verb as in "have you seen the dogs when they bowl". Hope that makes sense and I'm a non native myself so not 100% sure myself
Yep, that's it. This way "bowl" becomes a verb and the sentence means "Have you seen the dogs play bowling?".