Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo” is a grammatically valid sentence in the English language, used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated linguistic constructs.

The sentence is unpunctuated and uses three different readings of the word “buffalo”. In order of their first use, these are:

  • a. the city of Buffalo, New York, United States, which is used as a noun adjunct in the sentence and is followed by the animal;
  • n. the noun buffalo, an animal, in the plural (equivalent to “buffaloes” or “buffalos”), in order to avoid articles;
  • v. the verb “buffalo” meaning to bully, confuse, deceive, or intimidate.

Marking each “buffalo” with its use as shown above gives:

Buffaloa buffalon Buffaloa buffalon buffalov buffalov Buffaloa buffalon.

  1. moreinformation reblogged this from karenismyalias and added:
    Kenzie please explain this...me because I have been looking at it for like 10 minutes
  2. karenismyalias posted this
Short URL for this post: http://tmblr.co/ZxgIxx8ipksV