|
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
|
OP
enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
"I thought that that was the answer."
Note the immediate repetition of a single word, in a perfectly good english sentence. What other examples can we come up with? Can we exceed just a repeating pair, and perhaps get a triple play? or even quadruple -- or better?
No fair to: -- use battology; or -- make a word into a proper name (e.g., "Major Major" from Catch-22); or -- refer to a word as a word (I saw that "that" that that signpainter had misspelled.).
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688
addict
|
addict
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 688 |
"I thought that that was the answer."
Back to my school days, I learned that when a word is used like this in a sentence, the two occurrences should be separated by a comma as in:
"Did you know that, that was the way we were going?"
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
When there are lots of berries, eat what you can, can what you can't.
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 148
member
|
member
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 148 |
I can't really add to the double or triple plays, but re: the grammar - personally, if I'm proofreading something I would get rid of the comma between the thats. Read it aloud - it makes no sense to pause there. Maybe it's a hangover from German where it's a grammatical necessity to have the comma after 'dass' [how does one do an s-tset??]. It's often fine just to have one 'that', too, but the second that places emphasis [ I think, anyhow]
Alexis
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460
addict
|
addict
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460 |
Here's an example I posted a couple of years ago -- does it fit within your guidelines?
If only she, who had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had the teacher's approval.
Eleven at a blow!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 13,858 |
"Eleven at a blow" Thats a fly remark. Fly, fly!!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2001
Posts: 6,296 |
I thought that that "that" that that girl wrote--not the girl behind her--was superfluous.
That's only five, but fun trying. Edit: I just read the rules and realized I broke one! ha! Sorry!
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
|
OP
enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
PS: The "rules" are an attempt to fit within the logic of a newspaper column in which I read the puzzle. But it's fun to do it both ways: both with punctuation, and "pure".
|
|
|
|
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200
enthusiast
|
OP
enthusiast
Joined: Apr 2002
Posts: 200 |
the can can dancers
Some gentlemen perfer to watch the can can from a seat near the stage, where (being below the elevated stage) they view the dancers at a distinctly upward angle. One refers to them as infracancaninophiles.
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,913
Posts229,397
Members9,182
|
Most Online3,341 Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
0 members (),
579
guests, and
1
robot. |
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|