Edit: I originally meant some of the repetitive examples below e.g. Bergen bergen bergen or Buffalo buffalo buffalo, however some of the other versions are really interesting where it’s a single word or it’s the same word repeated with one or two filler words included. Really fun to see how creative and strange language is.
This thread is archived
New comments cannot be posted and votes cannot be cast
level 1
How about only two letters (well, mostly):
te tetted e tettetett tettet, te tettetett tettek tettese? (did you do this fake deed, you doer of fake deeds?)
level 2
Italian here, and you just repeatedly said «boobs».
level 2
Or, a long sentence using ONE word:
Legeslegmegszentségteleníttethetetlenebbjeitekként.
level 2
Suddenly feeling a lot less positive about my attempt to learn Hungarian.
level 2
If you play it on Google Translate (which automatically recognizes it as Finnish) it sounds like it’s humming a song.
level 1
Wydrze wydrze wydrze wydrze wydrze wydrze.
Which means: Baby otter snatches baby otter from another otter.
// Polish
level 2
Could you break that down word by word? In Czech (if I accept the stretch of using «vydrat» as «snatch») what you said would just be
«vydře vydře vydře vydře»
(Baby otter — snatches — baby otter — from otter)
I can’t really understand how your two extra «wydrze» fit into this.
level 1
vaðlaheiðarvegavinnuverkfærageymsluskúraútidyralyklakippuhringur
level 2
I have 2 questions:
-
Is that one word?
-
What does it mean?
level 1
Not sure if it’s the longest, but the only one I know that is pretty long…
Als in Bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen, bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen.
level 2
Isn’t that «als in» part of the sentence?
level 1
Si ton tonton tond ton tonton, ton tonton sera tondu.
level 2
« If your uncle shears your uncle, your uncle will be sheared »
level 2
· 4 yr. ago · edited 4 yr. ago
And «si ta tata tâte ta tata, ta tata sera tâtée.»
If your aunt touch your aunt, your aunt would be touched.
level 1
Macht Macht Macht?
no idea if there are longer ones, it’s kind of hard in German
Image by Ozzy Delaney on Flickr.com licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Here I’m going to highlight some of the simplest sentences in English. All of these sentences are only ONE word long! Sit back, relax, and enjoy; these are going to be some of the easiest English sentences you’ve ever learned. (It is about time something in English was easy, right?!)
One-word sentences in English come in a few different forms:
interrogatives or questions (example: Who?)
imperatives or commands (example: Stop!)
declaratives (example: Me.)
locatives (example: Here.)
nominatives (example: Jesse.)
In fact a lot of words in English can be one-word sentences, it all depends on the context.
A complete sentence, even a one-word sentence, needs to have a noun and a verb. In one-word sentences the subject (noun) or the action (verb) of the sentence is implied. That means it is understood in the context of the sentence (or the sentences around it) so that the subject and/or verb do not need to be stated explicitly.
Being brief and saying as much as you can in as few words as possible is something a lot of people want to do. Be careful though, sometimes you can sound robotic or rude if you use too many one-word sentences.
Here is a list of some common one-word sentences. I’m sure you already use some of these. Along side the one-word sentences I have written out what you could say, with more words, to mean the same thing.
Hi. (Hi there.)
Wait. (Please wait.)
Begin. (You may begin.)
Stop. (You need to stop.)
Hurry. (Hurry up please.)
Catch. (Catch this.)
Here. (Here you go.)
Go! (Get going now!)
Help! (I need help!)
Eat. (Go ahead and eat.)
Yes. (Yes, that would be great.)
No. (No, thank you.)
Thank you. (Thank you, I really appreciate it.)
The wh-question words: Who? What? Where? When? Why? How?
A lot of swear words: Sh*t., F*ck., etc.
Do you have a favorite one-word sentence? Add to this list by posting a comment below! Thank you.
Sentence Length: Why Does It Matter?
powered by
LanguageTool
When it comes to effective writing, sentence length matters. This blog will teach you how long a sentence should be.
How Long Should a Sentence Be?
Sentences are usually between 15–20 words. Thirty words is a long sentence and should be considered the maximum. Short sentences can quickly and reliably relay information. However, varying sentence length is important because sentences of the same length can be monotonous and bore your reader. Long sentences are acceptable in the appropriate setting, like creative writing.
What Is the Ideal Length of a Sentence?
The average sentence length is between 15–20 words. In most cases, the shorter the sentence, the better. This is because in today’s age, many readers have shorter attention spans and want rapid information. But, there’s more to sentence length than just keeping them short. Read on to learn about why short sentences are effective, why it’s important to vary sentence length, and when it’s okay to write long sentences.
Use Short Sentences
Technically, a sentence can be just one word. For example, “yes,” “no,” and “hurry” are words that are sentences on their own. Granted, if you write just those words with no context, you’ll leave your readers confused. But a long, wordy, and winding sentence can leave your readers just as puzzled.
A golden rule of effective writing is that if you can express your message in less words, do so. Writing shorter sentences may seem easier than the alternative, but it’s actually a skill that takes practice.
I was extremely happy because I got to see my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents, who I hadn’t seen in five years because they live in New Zealand.
I was ecstatic when I saw my family from New Zealand because I hadn’t seen them in five years.
One way to shorten sentences is to reduce wordiness:
In order to apply for the scholarship, you have to fill out all three pages.
To apply for the scholarship, you have to fill out all three pages.
Another way to make a long sentence short is by figuring out the main points. Then, rewrite each point as its own separate sentence. Similarly, if a sentence has more than one subordinate clause, it can be split up into two or more sentences:
Our professor won’t be coming to class today because she is sick and has to go see a doctor.
Our professor won’t be coming to class today. She is sick and has to go see a doctor.
However, it’s important to remember that although short sentences are direct and help you get to the point quickly, too many of them can cause a monotonous flow. We’ll elaborate below.
Why Should Writers Alternate Between Short and Long Sentences?
Varying sentence length can help keep your audience focused on your writing because it adds rhythm. Sentences of the same length create a boring tune. Instead, mix up the number of words in your sentence and watch how your readers will enjoy the tempo of your writing.
That being said, a long sentence is okay in the appropriate setting. For example, if you’re writing a creative work, not only is a long sentence acceptable, but they’re necessary to create a desired effect, like drama or suspense. Keep in mind that when writing long sentences, commas and other punctuations, like em dashes, can help improve readability.
Sentence Length Matters
Knowing how to write good, well-constructed sentences is one of the foundations of being a good writer, along with proper word choice and correct grammar. LanguageTool—a multilingual writing assistant—ensures your writing is flawless by correcting several different types of errors.
Going beyond proofreading, LanguageTool also makes stylistic suggestions—like recommending shortening a sentence if it is too long.
Becoming a proficient writer has never been so easy. Try it out yourself:
Unleash the Professional Writer in You With LanguageTool
Go well beyond grammar and spell checking. Impress with clear, precise, and stylistically flawless writing instead.
Get started for free
We Value Your Feedback
We’ve made a mistake, forgotten about an important detail, or haven’t managed to get the point across? Let’s help each other to perfect our writing.
“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.”
According to William Rappaport, a linguistics professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo (naturally), that — the word “Buffalo,” eight times in a row — is a legitimate, grammatically valid sentence.
Really. His long, hard to mentally wrestle with explanation is in the above link. but to boil it down quickly:
“Buffalo,” with a capital “B,” refers to the area of Buffalo, New York.
“buffalo,” with a lower-case “b,” can be a noun meaning “bison” or a verb meaning “intimidate”
Adding a few words to clarify, you get:
“Bison from Buffalo, NY, which other bison from Buffalo, NY intimidate, also intimidate (even other) bison from Buffalo, NY.”
Clunky? Sure. But it’s otherwise perfectly acceptable English. Try it with other animals and action: “Field mice domestic cats chase enjoy Swiss cheese.” Works fine.
Bonus fact: “The horse raced past the barn fell” is also a perfectly sound sentence, for different reasons. It’s an example of a garden path sentence, a sentence where the most likely interpretation leads to an odd result — your initial take is that the word “and” needs to be before the word “fell.” But read it as “The horse (that was) raced past the barn fell” and it makes sense.
From the Archives: And, the 27th Letter of the Alphabet: The ampersand — that is, “&” — was once part of the alphabet, which, as you’ll see, is how it got its name.
Related: “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” by Lynne Truss. Four stars on roughly 600 reviews.
A few years ago, I wrote a post titled “How Long Should a Paragraph Be?” which argued that various pronouncements that dictate paragraph length (expounded for the benefit of beginning writers, who presumably are aided by the introduction of a circumscribed formula for success in composition) should be ignored in favor of a commonsense approach to organizing paragraphs according to the ideas expressed within; the correct answer, I argued, is that a paragraph has to be long enough to reach its end, meaning that a paragraph can be as short or as long as is required for a writer to express an idea.
Did the preceding paragraph seem too long? It’s not especially lengthy, but if it exhausted you to read it, that’s because it consists of a single sentence that is more than a hundred words long. Although I am known to write long, complex sentences, that one, which I deliberately stretched out to an excessive extent, is an example of a statement that could use some reorganization.
How long should a sentence be? Like a paragraph, it should be long enough to reach its end, but, as with a paragraph, that objective should be balanced with aesthetic considerations. A sentence can consist of one word or be infinitely long, but what will serve the reader while expressing a complete thought?
Generally, it’s more productive to provide a sequence of sentences of naturally varied length than to dictate how many words one is permitted to use in a given sentence; a succession of sentences of equal or similar length will distract readers, as will a series with wildly divergent word counts. Take care not to repeatedly overwhelm sentences with multiple forms of parenthesis (interjecting words or phrases—or entire sentences, for that matter, using commas, parentheses, or dashes). The previous sentence includes the three basic forms, but note that, aside from a single semicolon, I have refrained from introducing anything more complicated into this paragraph.
Don’t overthink the issue, of course. Write naturally, but when revising your work, attend to sentence length and combine or separate sentences that seem too abrupt or unwieldy (unless that is the effect you want to create). If you want a ballpark figure, go with a range of twenty to twenty-five words as a benchmark, though average length will vary depending on the literacy of your readership.
Stop making those embarrassing mistakes! Subscribe to Daily Writing Tips today!
You will improve your English in only 5 minutes per day, guaranteed!
Subscribers get access to our archives with 800+ interactive exercises!
You’ll also get three bonus ebooks completely free!
