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Buffalo Buffalo
Six Word Photo Story Challenge: Freestyle
Buffalo — verb, noun, or proper noun?
There are 6 buffalo in the cover photo. You can’t see one of them unless you zoom in and spot a small set of horns somewhere in the middle of the buffalo mess.
I took one look and them and remembered this iconic English sentence:
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
Note that the capitalization seems weird. But it is intentional. There are three forms of the word buffalo at play here:
- Proper noun — the name of a city in New York state
- Noun — just another ordinary buffalo or bison
- Verb — where it means to confuse or intimidate someone
Today, I finally understood how this makes for a grammatically accurate sentence. The thought of saying it to someone with a straight face makes me break out into giggles.
Can you tap a passerby on their shoulder and deliver this sentence to them? Keep count. You have to say buffalo eight times, preferably with the right intonation. Let me know how that goes.
Meanwhile, I present half a dozen calm Indian buffalos that don’t buffalo Buffalo buffalo!
This article explains the sentence clearly, in case of academic interest!
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