this post was submitted on 04 May 2024
226 points (94.8% liked)
Languages and Linguistics | Polyglots, Language Learners and Linguists!
590 readers
1 users here now
A community for languages, linguistics and people interested in both!
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
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