Fun Fact Friday - Criminal Sentence

Before I get to the fun fact for today, I have a personal confession to make. Sometimes I read grammar books to try to help me fall asleep at night. That's not so bad, right?

"Right," I like to imagine you saying, dear reader, "unless of course you're some kind of freak who isn't put to sleep by grammar books." I am exactly that kind of freak. I get all excited that I'm almost to the page that talks about interrobangs. Then somehow I'm still awake and reading about comma splices. "Wow," I sense you are saying, dear reader, "comma splices? Really?" Really.

This is Klaus. He is surprised and confused just like you.

You're probably thinking terrible things about me, dear reader. And you probably have a strong sense of foreboding about where this fun fact may be going. And you are probably asking, "You read grammar books and start sentences with conjunctions?" I do. And I am not ashamed. I also sometimes enjoy sentences fragments. But only sometimes.

Now we've gone and spent much more time discussing the fact that I am a freak who cannot sleep than I planned to. "So why didn't you go back and rewrite that‽" you're probably yelling at your computer screen. (You're terribly judgmental today, dear reader. Calm down!) But now we're really just wasting more time. To the Fun Fact Mobile!

Fun fact: You can make a sentence with nothing more than buffalo.

"The fuck do you want?" - Scary Buffalo

At this point, I like to imagine you looking over your shoulder to see if there is a buffalo there. Because there might be. Buffalo!

But enough of these semi-paranoid shenanigans, you probably want to know what the hell am I talking about. A prison sentence? Of only buffalos? With cups of tea? No. A grammatical English sentence. And now I sense you are skeptical that this fun fact will actually be fun, dear reader. After all, I already lied to you about how there might be a buffalo behind you. Or did I? You should probably check again.

"I'm so sassy." - Sassafras T. Actually-A-Bison

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

Sentence! Magic! Exclamations!

It is probably one of my favorite sentences, but I often forget how many buffalos I need for it to really work. We've got three kinds of buffalo: the city of, the animal, and the verb.

And now I've said the word "verb." You are sad and sassy. Like Sassafras. But there is a verb version of buffalo, which basically means bully; then you've the noun, which is technically only the first scary picture of a buffalo above, but is often used to mean bison; and finally there is the depressing place in upstate New York, so...

Buffalo bison Buffalo bison bully bully Buffalo bison.

Or if you like it a little more clearly stated:

Buffalo bison, whom Buffalo bison bully, bully other Buffalo bison.

If you have read this far, I'd like to congratulate you. And reward you with another picture of what is not technically a buffalo.

"You wish you were this majestic." - A buffaloing Buffalo buffalo