Today’s quiz: What’s the difference between a bag and a sack?
(Spoiler alert: Before you read further, what’s your answer to that question?)
All right, you have your answer? It’s not hard, after all.
I put the question to three dozen first-year students at a small Midwestern college. Here’s what some of them said:
—Bags have straps, sacks have handles.
—A bag has handles and is usually bigger.
—A sack can be plastic or paper, while a bag is cloth.
—A bag is brown paper and a sack is plastic.
—Sacks are made of brown paper.
—Sacks are more disposable.
—Bags are better looking than sacks.
—A sack is used to carry groceries; a bag you can carry around your shoulders.
—A bag you carry on your shoulder, a sack you throw over your shoulder.
—Bag is something young people say. Sack is what older people say.
—You carry…