What would you call non human "people"?
I'm trying to have a dialogue where one character says something to the lines of "You're being really hard on yourself. You're only human."
That line doesn't feel right when dealing with an anthropomorphic bug character.
They consider themselves ant folk. I tried "folk" I tried "worker" (the general name for members of an ant colony.) But still am left with a blank. I could say "You're only a bug. Would that have the same impact?
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2 answers
We tend to have more and simpler words for things we talk about regularly than for things we talk about seldom, so there probably isn't an exact equivalent to "human" for ants, at least, not one the average reader would recognize.
So I think you have to ask what effect you are trying to produce for the reader. You could have them say:
You're only formicidaen.
Which is obviously a joke and so does not entirely depend (though it is certainly enhanced) the the reader recognizing (or looking up) that Formicidae is to ant as Homo Sapien is to man.
But if you don't want to do the joke, if you want to invoke the familiar cliche in a way that the cliche is what comes through, then you probably have no better choice than:
You're only an ant.
Most readers will recognize the cliche and will not be greatly troubled that "human" and "and ant" are not really parallel.
But if you want to do a nudge nudge wink wink post modern acknowledgement that this is an allegory and it is really about people then you go right ahead and say:
You're only human.
In cases like this it is not really about finding the perfect word so much as finding the phrase that directs the reader's attention where you want it to be.
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You could try going in the negative. "You're not a god."
Or, "You're not infallible."
Or, "Nobody is perfect."
You could try going sympathetic. "We all make mistakes. Welcome to the club."
Or, "How about that, you are normal, after all."
Or, "You've only got six limbs, you can't be expected to catch every thing."
Remember the point of saying "you are only human," and translate that. The point is that humans are fallible, make mistakes, they aren't perfect, and expecting them to be so is unrealistic.
It is actually not very good writing to engage in such cliché, even in dialogue. You should not want your reader to translate what you are saying into a cliché they know and think, 'Ah, he really means only human.'
If I am reading about ant folk, I expect them to come up with their own clichés, not borrow those of humans.
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