allow ’s not bet atgrammaras a cold , coarse mistress . She can also be a fun , kooky aunt . Here are some tricks you may do to make strange sounding sentences that are still grammatical .
1. One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas I’ll never know.
Take advantage of the fact that the same sentence can have two different structures . This noted joke from Groucho Marx assume that most masses wait the structure of the first part to be “ One morning [ I shot an elephant ] [ in my pajamas ] . ” But another possible , and utterly grammatical , meter reading is “ One morning [ I shoot down ] [ an elephant in my pajamas ] . ”
2. The horse raced past the barn fell.
Make agarden path sentence . Inthis one , we intend we ’ve reached the independent verb when we get toraced , but instead we are still inside a reduced relative clause . Reduced relative clauses have us say , “ the lecture give this daybreak ” alternatively of “ the voice communication that was give this morning ” or , in this case , “ the buck raced past the barn ” alternatively of “ the horse that was race past the barn . ”
3. The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.
This garden path sentence depends on the fact thatcomplex , house , andmarriedcan suffice as different portion of speech . Here , complexis a noun ( a caparison composite ) instead of an adjective , housesis a verb instead of a noun , andmarriedis an adjective instead of the past tense of a verb .
4. The rat the cat the dog chased killed ate the malt.
This time check multiple center embeddings . We normally have no trouble frame one clause inside another in English . We can take the phrasethe blackleg ate the maltand stick in more selective information to makethe rat the CT killed eat the malt . But the more clause we add in , the hard it produce to understand the condemnation . In this case , the rat corrode the malt . After that it was kill by a big cat . That computerized axial tomography had been chase after by a dog . The grammar of the conviction is fine . The style , not so good .
5. Anyone who feels that if so many more students whom we haven’t actually admitted are sitting in on the course than ones we have that the room had to be changed, then probably auditors will have to be excluded, is likely to agree that the curriculum needs revision.
This is another wild center - embedded sentence . Can you figure it out ? Start with “ anyone who feels X is probable to concur . ” Then go to ” anyone who feels if X then Y is likely to agree . ” Then make full out the X and Y. You might need a pencil and paper .
6. Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
Buffalo : It ’s a noun ! It ’s a city ! It ’s a verb ( meaning “ to restrain ” ) ! We ’ve discussed thenotorious buffalo sentence before , but it never stops being fun . Itplays onreduced relative clauses , different part - of - speech readings of the same word , and center embedding , all in the same sentence . Stare at it until you get the follow import : “ Bison from Buffalo , New York , who are intimidated by other bison in their residential district , also happen to restrain other bison in their community of interests . ”
7. This exceeding trifling witling, considering ranting criticizing concerning adopting fitting wording being exhibiting transcending learning, was displaying, notwithstanding ridiculing, surpassing boasting swelling reasoning, respecting correcting erring writing, and touching detecting deceiving arguing during debating.
This condemnation takes vantage of the versatile English – ing . The author of a 19th - century grammar guidelamentedthe fact that one could “ run to keen surplus ” in the use of – ingparticiples “ without violate any ruler of our common grammar , ” and constructed this sentence to prove it .
It does n’t seem so complicated once you realise it means , “ This very superficial grammatist , supposing empty criticism about the adoption of proper phraseology to be a show of sinful learnedness , was displaying , in malice of derision , a very braggart turgid argument concerning the rectification of false syntax , and about the detection of false logic in debate . ”
Not only is this a groovy exemplar of the wonderful and wild things you could do within the edge of right English , it ’s the perfect response to pull out the next fourth dimension someone attempt to criticize your grammar .
A rendering of this story scarper in 2015 ; it has been updated for 2023 .
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