These sentences are truly unusual. Let The English Nut explain. :) Video #53
Title: 5 strangely unique English sentences.
English is a unique language in so many ways. It has quirky spellings, unpredictable pronunciation, colourful vocabulary—and some really unusual sentences, which are the subject of this video.
1.
Here is a sentence that repeats the same word seven times in a row and still makes sense. Well, sort of.
It is true for all that that that that that that that refers to is not the same that that that that refers to.
This completely blew my mind the first time I read it. Seven ‘thats’ in a row. Followed by another four. I couldn’t make head or tail of it. I thought that a bit of punctuation and substituting a couple of ‘thats’ with ‘whiches’ might help make sense of it.
Super: It is true for all that, that that "that" which that "that" refers to is not the same "that" which that "that" refers to.
It is true for all that, that that "that" which that "that" refers to is not the same "that" which that "that" refers to.
Still not making sense? Let’s rewrite the sentence with other words to help explain the meaning.
Super: It is true, despite everything you say, that this word which this word refers to is not the same word which this word refers to.
Still complicated. But perhaps it makes a little more sense now. Suffice to say, that in terms of grammar, it is a valid sentence—confusing, but valid nonetheless.
2.
There are seven ways to spell the sound ‘ee’ in English. This sentence contains all of them.
‘She was relieved that Caesar could see people having caffeine from teapots.’
It’s a strange sentence, but a useful one, because it’s a ready reckoner for all the spellings of the ‘ee’ sound.
3.
The next sentence is based on an old joke about bad punctuation.
Super: Eats shoots and leaves.
This sentence was written about pandas, the large black-and-white mammals native to China that eat the shoots and leaves of bamboo trees.
Super: Eats, shoots and leaves.
If you throw in some unnecessary commas, though, it starts seeming like a reference to a person—or panda—who eats his meal, fires a gun and then goes away. Like a cowboy!
‘Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation’ is the title of a book by Lynne Truss on punctuation that is, believe it or not, entertaining.
4.
Read this sentence and see if it makes sense to you.
Super:
Read rhymes with lead, and read rhymes with lead, but read and lead don’t rhyme, and neither do read and lead.
No? Well, it does if you keep in mind the fact that you pronounce r-e-a-d as ‘reed’ in the present tense and ‘red’ in the past tense. Similarly, you pronounce l-e-a-d, ‘leed’ or ‘led’. So here’s how you should read the sentence: ‘Reed’ rhymes with ‘leed’, and ‘red’ rhymes with ‘led’, but ‘reed’ and ‘led’ don’t rhyme, and neither do ‘red’ and ‘leed’.
This reminds me of a riddle I was asked when I was a child: What’s black and white and read all over? The riddle is designed to make you think about an object with three colours—black, white and red—and thus get the answer wrong. But the question asked was actually not this.
Super: What’s black and white and red all over?
But this. ['red' is replaced by 'read' in super.]
And the correct answer is a newspaper. This riddle was devised in the days when newspapers were printed only in black-and-white. Newspapers are printed in every colour of the rainbow these days, making that riddle defunct.
5.
The next sentence is unique because it contains the ten different pronunciations of the letter sequence o-u-g-h.
‘The rough-coated, dough-faced ploughman was so deep in thought as he walked through the streets of Scarborough that he fell into the slough by the lough, coughing and hiccoughing.'
rough – uff; dough – oh; ploughman – ow; thought – aw; through – oo; Scarborough – uh; slough – ew; lough – okh; coughing – off; hiccoughing – up
Scarborough is the name of a place. Slough means swamp in this context. The word can also be pronounced ‘slou’, ‘sloo’ or ‘sluff’. Lough means lake. And h-i-c-c-o-u-g-h is an alternate spelling of hiccup.
There you have it. Five—or maybe six—English sentences with rather unique characteristics.
I’m The English Nut. Bye for now.
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