Can you understand English? A ten-word sentence of one word repeated. 1

[ESquared]

My favorite sentence consisting of a single word.

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.

Too bad you get the hint of the capital letters. Can you understand this sentence? Want some help? It took me several days to finally figure it out, and I'm a word and language fanatic.

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• Every joy is beyond all others. The fruit we are eating is always the best fruit of all.
• It is waking that understands sleep and not sleep that understands waking. There is an ignorance of evil that comes from being young: there is a darker ignorance that comes from doing it, as men by sleeping lose the k

 

[MakeItSo]

Hmmmmm

[COLOR=white white]A buffalo with one kida and a buffalo with three kids pass along. One kid gets lost. Poor buffalo! Buffalo with one kid and buffalo with two kids left trot away sadly...[/color]

Anywhere close?
;-)


[blue]An eye for an eye only leaves the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[Dimandja]

[COLOR=white]
A buffalo of Bufallo attacks another buffalo of Buffalo...  (Am I getting warm?)
[/color]

 

[ZoomerZ]

Buffalo buffalo
Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo
Buffalo buffalo
Buffalo buffalo buffalo
`Unknown poet`

 

[Stella740pl]

Well,

[white]
Though I get dizzy when trying to crack the grammar of all 10 words, I got the hint. Buffalo with a capital letter is a city in north-western New York, so it can work as an adjective (Buffalo buffalo is a buffalo from Buffalo). All the buffalos with small letters are either nouns for bisons, nouns for buffalo fish, or verbs similar in meaning to "to bully" or "to intimidate". The verb has other meanings too, "to deceive, hoodwink" and "to confuse, bewilder" (though I had to look up a dictionary for these other meanings).

So probably some bison from New York state was bullying some of his relatives from the same state ... I don't know. Anything even close?
[/white]

 

[ESquared]

Dimandja and Stella740pl are on the right track!

Just let me know if you want more hints or want to hear the full explanation. It's a tough one.

ZoomerZ, cute!

 

[ESquared]

Well, I'll give you all a hint.

Men women hate hate women.

 

[Stella740pl]

Oh, this one seems easy.

[white]
Men whom women don't like tend to reciprocate.
[/white]

The original one is much tougher. But helps with the grammar just a bit, not much.

 

[CajunCenturion]

I think I've got it.

[white]There is one phrase (Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo) that refers to two sets of bison from the city of Buffalo NY where the first group is being fooled by the second group.  The verb is coming after the second group.  This phrase is used at the beginning and at the end, separated by another use of the verb indicating that the first group is also fooling the second group.


(The first set of) Buffalo buffalo (that the second set of) Buffalo buffalo (who do the fooling) buffalo
(themselves are fooled by) buffalo 
(the second set) Buffalo buffalo (who are acting on the first set of) Buffalo buffalo (by fooling them) buffalo.

When capitalized, Buffalo refers to the New York city, and functions as an adjective.  Otherwise, the word is either a noun (n), and intransitive verb (vi) or a transitive verb (vt).

Buffalo [i](adj)[/i] buffalo [i](n)[/i] Buffalo [i](adj)[/i] buffalo [i](n)[/i] buffalo [i](vi)[/i] buffalo [i](vt)[/i] Buffalo [i](adj)[/i] buffalo [i](n)[/i] Buffalo [i](adj)[/i] buffalo [i](n)[/i] buffalo [i](vi)[/i].[/white]

Good Luck
--------------
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As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[Stella740pl]

Wow. It is dizzying.

 

[LFI]

Stella, while I am still trying to get the buffalo puzzle (although I am on the right track too), I think that a more accurate interpretation of the men/women line, paraphrasing you:

[white]Men whom SOME women don't like tend to reciprocate BROADLY BY DISLIKING ALL WOMEN.[/white]

'just thinking out loud.

Oh, hey! I think I got the buffalo one:

[white]
Bison from the city Buffalo that are intimidated by other bison from their city, take it out on their own kind in the same exact situation.
[/white]

--Dave

 

[Thadeus]

Might I ask someone to translate by substituting, but not adding words?

Something like "NewYork bison fool" etc.

~Thadeus

 

[CajunCenturion]

How about this:

[COLOR=white white]English men English women hate love English men English women hate.

But it's easier to follow with a few additional words (and a comma):
[i]The[/i]  English men [i]that[/i]  English women hate, love [i]the[/i] English men [i]that[/i] English women hate.[/color]

Good Luck
--------------
To get the most from your Tek-Tips experience, please read FAQ181-2886
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[SantaMufasa]

Thadeus,

I'll take a stab at it (but for best understanding, I'll add the word 'that' for clarity):

[white]
Northern New York bison (that) Northern New York bison deceive, deceive Northern New York bison (that) Northern New York bison deceive.[/white]

Erik E., is this a correct interpretation?

Mufasa
(aka Dave of Sandy, Utah, USA)

http://www.dasages.com

@ 12:46 (28Dec04) UTC (aka "GMT" and "Zulu"),
@ 05:46 (28Dec04) Mountain Time

 

[ESquared]

Congratulations to CajunCenturion for his accurate analysis of the puzzle.

Props to the other people who also worked on it correctly, including LookingForInfo and SantaMufasa.

The puzzle was originally presented to me with only eight buffalos. But I realized that three more could be added, thus making the puzzle harder and the sentence even more curious.

For anyone who is still unsure about exactly what that sentence says, let me start simple and build on that.

Highlight the following text to read the answer.

[white]First of all, buffalo is a special word which has three meanings.

Buffalo - a city in New York.
buffalo - bison.
buffalo - to baffle or confuse.

Let's replace these with one-word alternates, as some people have already done. And here's a simple sentence using those three words.

Chicago bison baffle.

Who do they baffle? Other bison, from Chicago. New words in bold.

Chicago bison baffle [b]Chicago bison[/b].

Now, if some Chicago bison that are being baffled, in turn go and baffle other Chicago bison, we have:

Chicago bison [that] [b]Chicago bison baffle[/b] [themselves in turn] baffle Chicago bison.

This is the 8-word sentence I learned. But why can't these tricky bison do their baffling not just to plain old Chicago bison (who have never been baffled), but also to the ones who already get baffled? Then we have the final 11-word sentence:

Chicago bison [that] Chicago bison baffle [themselves in turn] baffle Chicago bison [that] [b]Chicago bison baffle[/b].

Chicago bison Chicago bison baffle baffle Chicago bison Chicago bison baffle.

The pauses in the final sentence work out to something like this. I've added parts of speech.

Buffalo buffalo [subject, adjective noun]
Buffalo buffalo buffalo [phrase modifying the subject, adjective noun verb]
buffalo Buffalo buffalo [predicate with direct object, verb adjective noun]
Buffalo buffalo buffalo. [phrase modifying the direct object, adjective noun verb][/white]

I'm surprised no one noticed how I miscounted the words, leaving me to discover the mistake myself. That is, unless someone was simply too polite to comment. Don't hold back, next time!

 

[ESquared]

SantaMufasa,

It's correct, but I suggest using a single word when replacing Buffalo.

 

[Dimandja]

EE, why Chicago? and not Buffalo?

 

[ESquared]

No reason. It was just to use different words. But you're right, why not Buffalo bison baffle? I'll do that next time.

 

[craigsboyd]

I'm surprised no one noticed how I miscounted the words...

Guess I was buffaloed (or is that Chicagoed?). And who's this person "no one" that keeps messing up the bell curve for the rest of us?

http://www.sweetpotatosoftware.com