The most not fun sentence in English for folks learning English 😀

[malaise]

English is a difficult language…but it can be understood through tough, thorough, thought though!😀
https://m.

&t=17s&pp=2AERkAIB

[Goonch]

1. ;-{).......

[Goonch]

2. ;-{) I borrowed one of your hearts🤣

[malaise]

4. Hehehehe

All yours😀

[malaise]

3. Nicely played

😀

[eppur_se_muova]

5. "Buffalo" is the name of a ruminant mammal and a city in NY state. It can also mean "to bully, obstruct".

So this is a perfectly grammatical, logically meaningful sentence:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

[malaise]

6. ROFL

😀😀

[TheRickles]

8. Some punctuation might help. :-)

Reminds me of "It is true for all that, that that that that that that refers to, is not the one to which I refer."

[malthaussen]

11. Ain't that the truth. n/t

[malthaussen]

9. That's the sentence I'd like to drag my seventh-grade teacher to and say...

... "Diagram this, Lady."

-- Mal

[twodogsbarking]

10. I have coarse and fine sea salt. After skipping on the coarse I thought to myself "fine is fine".

Then I thought how messed up English can be.

[malaise]

14. LOL

and why is it two geese but not two meese? I know no logical reason for this.😀

[twodogsbarking]

17. Ah but goose has yet another meaning. If you get goosed more than once is it geesed?

I wish I knew Spanish.

[malaise]

18. Love it

😀

[Chellee]

29. Do you really want to know?

I sometimes have a difficult time determining when people are asking actual questions, and when they're being funny.

If you did sincerely want to know, goose comes from Old English, and moose comes from Algonquian. It's just a coincidence that they rhyme. That's why their plurals don't follow the same rules, because they come from two vastly different languages.

[malaise]

31. I always want to learn something

Thank you😀

[Chellee]

37. You're welcome

[paleotn]

12. That letter is silent until I sez it aint!

Add heteronyms like lead and lead and it's a West Germanic / French / Norse mess. And we though Mandarin Chinese was tough....which it is.

[Permanut]

28. French is the worst..

George Carlin said that in French, every letter is silent.

[Igel]

13. Perhaps learning to read English.

I've always liked garden-path sentenced.

The horse raced around the barn fell down.

Or multiple subordinated clauses: The dog the kid the mother saw fed barked. (Lots don't like that kind of subordination--they can handle 1 layer, "The dog the kid fed barked" but lose the thread with the 2nd level.)

Once was reading something in German and I just couldn't get a sentence to cohere. Took it to a native speaker. She read it. Read the paragraph it was in. Read the sentence again. Read the sentence again. Out loud. Then again, with different pauses. Finally got it to click. It was the three verbs at the end and unpacking the structure(s) embedded before them that threw her/me/us. Formal, academic German.

(Russian can pull off some doozies, either because of the syntax that's there or the widespread variety of elliptical devices and zero-copula. English-learners also don't like things like pseudogapping, esp. if their verbal morphology involves suffixes: "They have been eating the apples more than they have the oranges" (ex. from Wiki). Last thing I read about ellipsis was Marjorie McShane's diss, but that's been more than 20 years ago.)

[Kid Berwyn]

15. Spelled "ghoti" sounds exactly like "fish."

How can "ghoti" and "fish" sound the same?

gh = f as in rouGH
o = i as in wOmen
ti = sh as in naTIon

https://www.englishclub.com/esl-articles/199909.php

[malaise]

16. Haha

😂

[DFW]

19. When I was living in Catalunya, it was a requirement to learn the one about the setze jutges (sixteen judges)

https://www.omniglot.com/soundfiles/twisters/tt1_catalan.mp3

[malaise]

20. Haha

😀

[DFW]

21. When my daughters were very little I taught them the first part of that

They had no idea what it meant, but thought it sounded cool and wanted to learn it.

"Setze jutges d'un jutjat mengen fetge d'un penjat." "Sixteen judges on a court eat the liver of a hanged man."

No one ever accused the Catalans of being wimps................

[malaise]

22. Clearly not wimps

😀

[DFW]

23. Here is the ultimate test of all time (you have to click on "watch on youtube" )

It's a polka sung in the Karellian dialect of Finnish (which is already impossible).

Verse 1
Nuapurista kuulu se polokan tahti jalakani pohjii kutkutti
Ievan äiti se tyttöösä vahti vaan kyllähän Ieva sen jutkutti
Sillä ei meitä silloin kiellot haittaa
Kun myö tanssimme laiasta laitaan

Chorus:
Salivili hipput tupput täppyt äppyt tipput hilijalleen

Verse2
Ievan suu oli vehnäsellä ko immeiset onnee toevotti
Peä oli märkänä jokaisella ja viulu se vinku ja voevotti
Ei tätä poikoo märkyys haittaa
Sillon ko laskoo laiasta laitaan

(Chorus)

Verse 3
Ievan äiti se kammarissa virsiä veisata huijjuutti
Kun tämä poika naapurissa ämmän tyttöä nuijjuutti
Eikä tätä poikoo ämmät haittaa
Sillon ko laskoo laiasta laitaan

(Chorus)

Break:
Hilipati hilipati hilipati hillaa
Hilipati hilipati hilipampaa
Jalituli jallaa talituli jallaa
Tilitali tilitali tilitantaa
Hilipati hillaa hilipati hillaa
Hilipati hilipati jalituli jallaa
Tilitali tallaa, tulituli jallaa
Hilipati hilipati hilipampaa
Rimpatirillaa ripirapirullaa
Rumpatirumpa tiripirampuu
Jamparingaa rimpatiraparan
Tsupantupiran dillandu
Japat stilla dipudupu dullaa
Dumpatidupa lipans dullaa
Dipidapi dullaa rimpati rukan
Ribitit stukan dillandu
Jatsatsa barillas dilla lapadeian dullan deian doo
Joparimba badabadeia stulla
Laba daba daba dujan dillandu
Barillas dilla deiaduu badaba daga daga daga daga dujaduu
Badu dubi dubi dubi dejaduu
Badaba dillas dillan dejaduu


Verse 4
Siellä oli lystiä soiton jäläkeen sain minä kerran sytkyyttee
Kottiin ko mäntii ni ämmä se riitelj ja Ieva jo alako nyyhkyytteek
Minä sanon Ievalle mitäpä se haittaa
Laskemma vielähi laiasta laitaa

(Chorus)

Verse 5
Muorille sanon jotta tukkee suusi en ruppee sun terveyttäs takkoomaa
Terveenä peäset ku korjoot luusi ja määt siitä murjuus makkoomaa
Ei tätä poikoo hellyys haittaa
Ko akkoja huhkii laiasta laitaan

(Chorus)

Verse 6
Sen minä sanon jotta purra pittää ei mua niin voan nielasta
Suat männä ite vaikka lännestä ittään vaan minä en luovu Ievasta
Sillä ei tätä poikoo kainous haittaa
Sillon ko tanssii laiasta laitaan

(Chorus)

If it makes anyone feel better, no, I couldn't do it, either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[malaise]

24. LOL

What does it mean?
Clearly it is impressive 5.8 million views😀

[DFW]

25. 5.8 million views

Of which 5.799.990 had no earthly idea what the lyrics mean, present company included!

[malaise]

26. Well I know every word for this one

and still don’t know the meaning

[sdfernando]

27. These words were part of one of the very very early I Love Lucy episodes

It was before they moved to the apartment everyone knows...and Ricky was still trying to learn english. As all of their shows, it was quite funny.

[malaise]

30. Fascinating

I imagine I Love Lucy would be considered WOKE by the MAGAts today.

Thanks for this.😀

[highplainsdem]

32. Interesting video! If you'd like to know how English ended up with those spellings/pronunciations, I posted

a link to an OED page explaining it back in 2022

https://www.democraticunderground.com/10181620288#post3

but the OED reorganized its website later, as it explained here

https://www.oed.com/information/about-the-oed/oed-blog/?tl=true

which led me to this page

https://www.oed.com/discover/history-of-english

which finally led me to this

https://www.oed.com/discover/early-modern-english-spelling-grammar-and-pronunciation/

which looks a lot like what I linked to 4 years ago, when the link had been
https://public.oed.com/blog/early-modern-english-pronunciation-and-spelling

[malaise]

33. Thanks

Bookmarking

[highplainsdem]

34. You're welcome! I love the OED. Have the compact edition I bought about

40 years ago - looks like this (images found on X) -

[malaise]

35. Have mine right here

😀

[highplainsdem]

36. Great!