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[-] fluckx@lemmy.world 12 points 1 day ago

Or this monster:

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_while_John_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_had_a_better_effect_on_the_teacher

[-] isyasad@lemmy.world 3 points 18 hours ago

The fact that five of the "hads" are not semantically the word "had" but rather a quotation makes this one weaker than "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" imo, though you could argue that Buffalo as a proper noun is also kinda cheating.

[-] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 8 points 1 day ago

The fact that that sentence can even be considered in any way correct is a fucking travesty

[-] alquicksilver@lemmy.world 5 points 18 hours ago

I would argue that, without the punctuation, it's not technically correct. The references to James and John saying "had had," at least, should be in quotes. Additionally, unless broken up with a semicolon or a period before the final four "hads," it's a run-on sentence.

If you change the "hads" that mean provided/said in the context of the sentence (excluding the quoted ones), you could write it as:

James, while John had [said] "had", had [said] "had had"; "had had" had [provided] a better effect on the teacher.

And though it doesn't flow right to me to have James and his action verb split by a phrase about John, I'm not sure that's incorrect. Phrasing it to fix the flow, for me, would be:

While John had [said] "had", James had [said] "had had"; "had had" had [provided] a better effect on the teacher.

[-] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago

I guess. But to me the most baffling thing is such a sentence can even be constructed. Even disregarding the missing punctuation. I don't think I could even get close to this in my native language. Maybe 2 or 3 worda at most and even then probably not.

[-] khepri@lemmy.world 1 points 18 hours ago

Yeah, these are really silly if you can use quotes or like place/person names. Like if my Dad named Had lived in a town called Had Had, and his favorite thing to say was "had had had"...it just becomes like stupid to say that's some crazy example of a grammatical sentence even if it technically is.

[-] MedicPigBabySaver@lemmy.world 2 points 1 day ago

That's plain ol' fucking stupid.

this post was submitted on 02 Dec 2025
192 points (100.0% liked)

Showerthoughts

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