Sunday, July 10, 2011

'Only' can change a sentence to 8 different meanings

Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have eight different meanings by placing ONE WORD in all possible positions in the sentence:

"I hit him in the eye yesterday."

The word is "ONLY".

The Message:

1.ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did.)
2.I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him.)
3.I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others.)
4.I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye.)
5.I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.)
6.I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn't have another eye..)
7.I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today.)
8.I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for today.)

This is the beauty and complexity of the English language.

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2 comments:

  1. Anonymous2:03 pm

    Cool , but the no.6 : I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn't have another eye..) , that doesn't make much sense. What's the probability that the person has only one eye. I mean come on ... what was he, a cycolps or what ???

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  2. KoSong Cafe2:59 pm

    I can understand your point of view. But, this being English by way of examples, that was the meaning meant by the Prof. and it is pointless arguing over whether there is such a person with an only eye. Perhaps, his other eye is known to be blind which can explain his 'only eye'!

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