this post was submitted on 04 May 2024
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One of my favorite examples of crazy English is: "All of the faith that he had had had had no effect on the outcome of his life."
On the exam, Johnny, while Bobby had had 'had', had had 'had had'. 'Had had' had had a better effect on the teacher.
While cool, I'm not clear on how one can have 'had' or 'had had'.
While Bobby wrote "had" on the exam, Johnny wrote "had had".
I hate you.
The owner of a fish and chips shop in Blackpool was having a sign made. The sign painter drew a mock up, and showed it to the shop owner, but it was a little cramped. The shop owner asked the sign painter to "leave a little more space between fish and and and and and chips."
Realising how funny it sounded he said, "wait, no, write that down! I can call my shop that!" The sign painte diligently drew up another draft, but again it was a little cramped. The shop owner, exasperated, said "no, now we need more space between fish and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and chips!"
He paused, and his face lit up, "write that down!" And so te sign painter...
No matter how many times I read this it makes no sense, why so many ands the first time?
A more detailed version of the sentence would be:
3 of the "and"s are the literal actual word "and", while the other two are referring to the word "and" on the sign.
That helped, thank you!
A comma after the first two ands would make things clearer.
Like ands through the hourglass, so are the days of lives