Most people are aware of the phrase:
- The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog
but many, perhaps most, don't realise
- Why it's interesting
- It's wrong.
OK, so it's interesting because it contains every letter
of the alphabet. Except it doesn't. It's missing "s".
So let's make it more correct, but slightly less "natural"
sounding:
- The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog
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It is a matter of taste, of course, as to whether
this version sounds more natural, or less natural. To me,
the present tense version sounds less natural ... but as
they say, your mileage may vary. |
Now at least it has all the letters, but it requires the
present tense, and is therefore (perhaps) less natural
when recounted.
It's also not that efficient. There are several repeated
letters, including "e" and "o". Can we do better than
the 35 letters? What about
- Quick brown foxes jump over the lazy dog.
That's 33 letters.
How about a complete change of theme?
- Pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs.
That's 32.
We can play this game for a while, and it's instructive
to do so. In that spirit ...
There were some villains from a remote valley village in Wales
who found a funny symbol made out of some clear crystal. They
thought it might be worth money, so they tried to work out how
to steal it, but the task left them scratching their heads.
In fact, one might say this:
- Quartz glyph job vexd cwm finks.
Well, perhaps not.
Send us a comment ...
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