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What is the strangest sentence that ever existed in English?
July 30, 2020
Author:marcus blackwood, keep followingLinkedInYGore.
Have you ever wondered what is the strangest sentence in English? There are many long or funny words in the vocabulary that can sound strange. Due to English grammar, they can form the strangest and most confusing sentences. The English language can be confusing and complex at times as the meaning of sentences can depend on commas, function words, word accents and homophones. In this article we show you the 10 funniest, craziest and strangest phrases in English.
The 10 Weirdest Grammatically Correct Sentences
10. I never said she stole my money.
At first glance, there is nothing special about this sentence. However, try to place the accent on different words each time, and you will see how radically their meaning can change. There are many phrases like this, but the one above is one of the most popular and rare ones. Let's see how this works:
- I never said she stole my money. - but someone did.
- I never said she stole my money. - I just didn't say it.
- I never said she stole my money. - but I could point that out.
- I never said she stole my money. - Was not!
- I never said she stole my money. - I could have hidden it.
- I never said she stole my money. - Someone else's money is gone.
9. This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand, and to God.
Here is another example among strange English phrases. You can read this sentence twice. There is no oxford comma, but you can still put an imaginary comma before "e". If so, there would be nothing unusual about that sentence. However, if you consider that there is no comma there, it appears that the author's parents were Ayn Rand and Gott! This is called syntactic ambiguity, which is quite common in the English language. You can even try to come up with this phrase yourself, as it is very easy if you follow an example.
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8. Time flies like an arrow, but fruits fly like a banana.
This sentence starts off well and ends up becoming one of those crazy English sentences that makes sense. If you're reading this sentence for the first time, you might be wondering how a fruit can fly like a banana and why. Only on the second reading can we see that little insects called fruit flies like to eat a banana. The last question is, is there a "time flies" bug that likes arrows?
7. One morning I shot an elephant in its pajamas; I'll never know how he got into my pajamas.
To understand this sentence, you have to go back to the beginning. This clever joke was invented by Groucho Marx and is now one of the catchiest phrases in English. It has the pun on the phrase "in my pajamas". The first meaning is that I can shoot an elephant in pajamas. The other walks like an elephant can put on my pajamas and I can shoot him on the spot. This interesting sentence is an example of how the human brain can group different words in a sentence and create new meanings.
6. A pensive helm, with frizzy hair and gaunt face, walking the streets of Scarborough; After falling into a swamp, he coughed and sobbed.
Here is an excellent example of a phonetic game. The fact is that -ough may have a different pronunciation in the English language. The exact pronunciation of some English words is difficult to get by looking at them. Some linguists even joke that there are a lot of weird pronunciation rules in English and that there are a lot of exceptions. The above sentence illustrates the proverb because there are nine -ough reading versions. Search this phrase on Google or Youtube and listen to its pronunciation. You will see that all the words with -ough sound different.
5. This totally insignificant joke, considering that scolding and criticizing for assuming proper formulations is evidence of superior knowledge, showed a superior display of arrogant thinking, respecting the correction of writing errors and touching recognition, despite the mockery of the mistake in the discussion during the debate.
This is probably the most confusing phrase of all. This phrase represents an amazing ability of the English language to add “ing” to the end of words, forming nouns, adjectives or verbs depending on the context. All the words in the previous sentence end in "-ing", except "this", "and" and "was". This phrase was originally found in a 19th century grammar book. Perhaps the creator wanted to find out how many -ings he could include in a sentence. Although this phrase seems redundant and too full of final "-ing" words, it has a clear and distinct meaning. It says here: "This very problematic grammarian, who considered lengthy comments on the correct use of words a sign of transcendent learning, at the same time, despite his scorn, made a very arrogant argument about correcting incorrect syntax and erroneous arguments in the course of the debates".
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4. All the faith he had had no bearing on the outcome of his life.
At first glance, this seems like one of those sentences that doesn't make sense. However, English is full of syntactically ambiguous sentences that nevertheless conform to the rules of the English language. For example, a modifier phrase can refer to more than one noun at the same time. Polysemy and homonymy often confuse the phrase, or there is no comma to point the way. In the case of the previous sentence, there is an abuse of the past tense that is still grammatically valid. "Had" can be both an auxiliary verb and the main verb, so some of the "had"s make sense and some are just function words. The first and third "had" are auxiliary and the rest are nouns. Thus, the sentence can be paraphrased like this: "Before, he had a lot of faith, but this did not affect the outcome of his life." Well, that sentence is clear, but it's not so funny anymore.
3. I don't know where the GPs got the illegible and confusing handwriting from; however, the extraordinary pharmaceutical intellectuality that contradicts indecipherability transcendentizes the incomprehensibility of intercommunication.
This phrase is surprising in many ways. Firstly, it is made up of some of the longest words in the English language, making it difficult to understand. This is one of the most sophisticated, long, and confusing sentences on our list. This principle is called "ropalic sentence", so now you have something new to tell your family and friends. The phrase above was invented by amateur linguist and author Dmitri Borgmann just for fun. If you don't want to deal with the meaning of that long, wordy sentence, here's a less challenging version. Simply put, it could be: “I don't know where doctors learned to write for anyone to read. Still, the doctors' intellect and their ability to write poorly are in balance, which I don't understand." For an answer to this tricky question in another language, visitmedical translation servicewhich provides accurate documents. By the way: the second magic trick of this sentence is that each word has one more letter than the last.
2. Are you ready to cut down a tree or are you willing to cut it down?
Wait, how is it possible to cut down a tree and then do the opposite? Phrasal verbs are the culprit here. "Cut" and "cut" are similar, so you might think they are complete opposites. That's right, the first of these confusing phrases means chopping down the tree until it falls, but the second means chopping it down into smaller pieces. Also, there's a trick to being "up" or "down" on something, which might seem like the complete opposite, but actually mean the same thing. So the phrase means, "Do you want to chop down a tree or do you feel like cutting it to pieces?" This phrase is possible because phrasal verbs can be different but mean the same thing, or they can be very similar but mean the opposite. .
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1. Büffelbüffel Büffelbüffel Büffelbüffel Büffelbüffel.
This sentence shows how awkward English grammar rules can be sometimes. Contrary to what you might think, this is not a simple sequence full of repetitive and meaningless words. Makes sense and is grammatically correct! Let's see this now.
"Buffalo" as a noun can mean both an animal and a city in New York, but as a verb it means "intimidate or intimidate". So the meaning of the sentence is: "A Buffalo NY bison that Buffalo NY bison harasses, Buffalo NY bison harasses." form. This is a "crown jewel" of oddities that English grammar can produce, and to a foreigner it would be utter nonsense unless someone explained it to them.
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Which confusing phrases did you like the most?
Of course, there are many other examples of strange English phrases that can pop up anywhere. They appear in friendly conversations, on TV and on social media. Sometimes they are welcome because they make us laugh out loud. Although,best translation servicesTry to avoid ambiguity as much as possible, as confusing English sentences can get in the way of translation. Share these 10 strangest English phrases with a friend or family member and see if they can crack them.
FAQs
What is the strangest grammatically correct sentence? ›
- One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas; how he got into my pajamas, I'll never know.
- Time flies like an arrow, but fruit flies like a banana. ...
- This book is dedicated to my parents, Ayn Rand and God. ...
- I never said she stole my money. ...
'Buffalo buffalo that buffalo Buffalo buffalo that buffalo Buffalo buffalo, while Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo that buffalo Buffalo buffalo had had “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo”, had had “James, while John had had 'had', had had 'had had'; 'had had' had had a better effect ...
What is the most complicated sentence ever? ›Molly Bloom's soliloquy in the James Joyce novel Ulysses (1922) contains a sentence of 3,687 words. William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! (1936) contains a sentence composed of 1,288 words (in the 1951 Random House version). Jonathan Coe's 2001 novel The Rotters' Club has a sentence with 13,955 words.
What are some weird sentences? ›- The old man the boat.
- The horse raced past the barn fell down.
- The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.
- Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.
"Colorless green ideas sleep furiously" is a sentence composed by Noam Chomsky in 1957 as an example of a sentence whose grammar is correct but whose meaning is nonsensical. It was used to show inadequacy of the then-popular probabilistic models of grammar, and the need for more structured models.
What is the longest grammatically correct sentence using one word? ›“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” According to William Rappaport, a linguistics professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo (naturally), that — the word “Buffalo,” eight times in a row — is a legitimate, grammatically valid sentence.
What is the 13955 word sentence? ›The longest sentence award goes to: Jonathan Coe's The Rotter's Club, 13,955 word sentence.
What is the hardest grammar in English? ›- Who v whom. ...
- Sentences ending with a preposition. ...
- Starting a sentence with a conjunction. ...
- Different to v different from. ...
- One word sentences. ...
- Split infinitives. ...
- Who v that.
- Facetious. Pronounced “fah-see-shuss”, this word describes when someone doesn't take a situation seriously, which ironically is very serious indeed. ...
- Henceforth. ...
- Ostentatious. ...
- Morrow. ...
- Crapulous. ...
- Kerfuffle. ...
- Obsequious.
A sentence word (also called a one-word sentence) is a single word that forms a full sentence. Henry Sweet described sentence words as 'an area under one's control' and gave words such as "Come!", "John!", "Alas!", "Yes." and "No." as examples of sentence words.
What is the shortest complete sentence ever? ›
It also expresses a complete thought. So 'I am' is the shortest sentence.
What are the most severe sentences? ›Imprisonment is the most severe sentence available to the courts. Custodial sentences are reserved for the most serious offences and are imposed when the offence committed is “so serious that neither a fine alone nor a community sentence can be justified for the offence” (section 230(2) of the Sentencing Code).
What's a cringe sentence? ›1. : to feel disgust or embarrassment and often to show this feeling by a movement of your face or body. Many English teachers cringe when their students use the word “ain't.” I always cringe when I hear that song. Just the thought of eating broccoli makes me cringe.
What is a super sentence? ›Students create sentences that use Hot Words in meaningful ways as they define the word in a new context. These sentences are called Super Sentences. Super Sentences can be a weekly homework assignment. For example, by Friday students must have written Super Sentences for the first 5 Hot Words on the class list.
What is a sentence that doesn't make sense? ›In linguistics, comparative illusions (CIs) or Escher sentences are certain comparative sentences which initially seem to be acceptable but upon closer reflection have no well-formed, sensical meaning.
What is an illogical sentence? ›1. lacking in correct logical relation 2. lacking orderly continuity. 1 It is clearly illogical to maintain such a proposition. 2 It is illogical to oppose the repatriation of economic migrants.
What sentence has never been said? ›“It was my fault and I take full responsibility”. This sentence has never been spoken and almost certainly will never be spoken by Donald J.
What is the longest word in English that takes 3 hours to say full word? ›Methionylthreonylthreonylglutaminylarginyl… isoleucine is the chemical name for the protein of “titin” also known as “connectin.” The largest known protein that consists of 26, 926 amino acids is made up of 189, 819 letters and can take about three hours to pronounce.
What is the longest single word in English? ›In that case, what's the longest word in the English language dictionary? It's pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis.
What is the longest English sentence ever? ›He once said, “It was Faulkner at his most involuted and incantatory who most enchanted me.” The current record holder for the longest english sentence is Jonathan Coe for his staggering 33-page, 13,955-word sentence in The Rotter's Club, 2001. Though the record has been broken, Faulkner's legacy lives on.
What is the shortest word in the world? ›
The shortest word is a. Some might wonder about the word I since it consists of one letter, too. In sound, a is shorter because it is a monophthong (consists of one vowel), while I is a diphthong.
What is the longest grammar word? ›Major dictionaries
The longest word in any of the major English language dictionaries is pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (45 letters), a word that refers to a lung disease contracted from the inhalation of very fine silica particles, specifically from a volcano; medically, it is the same as silicosis.
- 1 Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis (forty-five letters): ...
- 2 Pseudopseudohypoparathyroidism (thirty letters): ...
- 3 Floccinaucinihilipilification (twenty-nine letters): ...
- 4 Antidisestablishmentarianism (twenty-eight letters):
An intransitive verb does not take an object. Using an object immediately after an intransitive verb will create an incorrect sentence. However, there may be other information after the verb, such as one or more prepositional phrases or an adverb.
What is the hardest thing to learn in English? ›- Sentence structure. The big red dog NOT the red big dog. ...
- Phrasal verbs. How do you feel about phrasal verbs? ...
- Vowels. Vowels. ...
- Latent letters. Moved to the states when I was 7 years old. ...
- Exceptions. ...
- Pronunciation. ...
- Idioms. ...
- Homonyms.
The grammar of Hungarian is significantly different from that of Indo-European languages such as English. The language has no grammatical gender and it uses suffixes instead of prepositions which makes Hungarian one of the most difficult languages in the world.
What does Cattywampus mean? ›Cattywampus. Originating in the Colonial United states and still used in the deep South, cattywampus means something that is in disarray, that is askew, or something that isn't directly across from something.
What is the most mysterious word in the world? ›Consent is probably the most confusing, puzzling, and incomprehensible words in the world.
What's a rare word for beautiful? ›Pulchritudinous (and pulchritude) come from the Latin pulcher (which means “beautiful”), the same source for a number of uncommon words in English, such as pulchrify (“to beautify”), pulchritudeness (a synonym of pulchritude), and pulchrous ("fair or beautiful”).
What English word has only one meaning? ›Language scholars use the word monosemy for a word that has only one meaning. A word like "lucrative" (producing a profit) has only one meaning, and is therefore an example of monosemy. A word like "check" is a whole other story. When a word has just one meaning, it's completely clear and unambiguous.
What is a sentence with only the first letter of each word? ›
An acronymic sentence is a sentence that is created using the first letter of each piece of information to be remembered.
Can a sentence just have two words? ›Some sentences can be very short, with only two or three words expressing a complete thought, like this: They waited. This sentence has a subject (They) and a verb (waited), and it expresses a complete thought.
What is the longest sentence without punctuation? ›The Guinness Book of Records lists the longest proper sentence as one from William Faulkner's novel 'Absalom, Absalom!' (1,287 words). Some ancient languages, such as Sanskrit and Greek, did not have any punctuation. So all their sentences were long!
Which sentence contains all 26 alphabets? ›An English pangram is a sentence that contains all 26 letters of the English alphabet. The most well known English pangram is probably “The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog”.
What two letter word can also be the shortest sentence in English? ›Many writers agree with you that Go. is the shortest complete sentence in the English language, and that any two- or three-letter second-person verbs used as imperatives (Sit! Eat!) are also shorter complete sentences than I am..
What is the harshest sentence in the US? ›| Name | Sentence start | Sentence term |
|---|---|---|
| Charles Cullen | 2006 | 19 life sentences without parole for 497 years |
| David Randitsheni | 2009 | 16 life sentences plus 220 years |
| Jeffrey Dahmer | 1992 | 16 life sentences without parole |
| Earl Bradley | 2011 | 14 life sentences without parole plus 165 years |
There are numerous federal criminal statutes authorizing a sentence of life as the maximum sentence allowed, such as for offenses involving drug trafficking,1 racketeering,2 and firearms3 crimes.
What state has the harshest sentencing? ›Rhode Island is the state where drug offenders are most likely to avoid jail time with only 62.5% of drug-related offenses resulting in prison sentences. Looking at the average prison sentences given for drug-related offenses, Iowa is the harshest state with the average sentence given being 111 months.
Is it most strange or strangest? ›There is no rule as to which you should use - it is a style choice.
How do you know if a sentence is grammatically correct? ›In order for a sentence to be grammatically correct, the subject and verb must both be singular or plural. In other words, the subject and verb must agree with one another in their tense. If the subject is in plural form, the verb should also be in plur al form (and vice versa).
Is buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo a grammatically correct sentence? ›
'Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo' is a grammatically correct sentence.
What is an example of a grammatically correct sentence? ›For example: I am Brendan. This is a grammatically correct sentence because it has both the 'I' (the subject) and 'am' (the verb). The sentence is simply saying that I exist as a person called Brendan.
Is strangest an adjective? ›adjective. ˈstrānj. stranger; strangest. Synonyms of strange. : different from what is usual, ordinary, or expected : odd.
What type of word is strangest? ›Strangest is an adjective - Word Type.
What does strangest looking mean? ›adjective. Something that is strange is unusual or unexpected, and makes you feel slightly nervous or afraid.
What is the error I opened the store on 9am yesterday? ›The correct sentence will be rewritten as " I opened the store at 9 am yesterday." The mistake in the sentence provided to us is that of the pronoun. Instead of the pronoun ' on ' we should use the pronoun ' at.
Why do we use S in English? ›Grammar explanation. We can use possessive 's to talk about the relationship between people or to say who owns something. Possessive 's always comes after a noun or a name. We often use possessive 's or s' when we talk about family and friends.
Is there an app to check sentence grammar? ›Grammarly works on 500,000+ websites and applications on your Windows or Mac computer, iOS and Android mobile devices, word processors and email clients, and more. Use it where you're writing, or add your text to The Grammarly Editor.
What word can be used 8 times in a row in a grammatically correct sentence? ›Buffalo written eight times is a grammatically correct sentence that sounds crazy but actually means something.
Can you have a 1 word sentence? ›A sentence word (also called a one-word sentence) is a single word that forms a full sentence. Henry Sweet described sentence words as 'an area under one's control' and gave words such as "Come!", "John!", "Alas!", "Yes." and "No." as examples of sentence words.
What is the shortest grammatically correct sentence? ›
To make a complete sentence in English you need a subject and a predicate. The sentence 'I am' has both- the subject- I and Predicate- am. It also expresses a complete thought. So 'I am' is the shortest sentence.
What is common mistake in English? ›A common grammatical mistake for English learners is for their pronouns and nouns to disagree, when dealing with singular and plural examples. The straightforward rule is that singular pronouns must go with singular nouns, and plural pronouns must go with plural nouns.
What is a sentence that sounds correct but doesn't make sense? ›Escher sentences are sentences that seem to make sense at first sight, but on closer inspection appear to be grammatically incorrect. Here is an example: More people have been to Berlin than I have. That seems to be correct, but obviously it doesn't make sense.
What is a dangling expression? ›A dangling modifier is a phrase or clause that is not clearly and logically related to the word or words it modifies (i.e. is placed next to).