User:Benjamin Mako Hill/List of homophonous phrases

August 13 AfD

A list of homophonous phrases.

English

• Foul fowl foul fowl foul foul foul fowl.
• Dogs' dogs dog dog Dog Dogs
• Will Will's will will Will's will?
• Ewes ewes use use ewes ewes use.
• Fish fish, at least in the case of anglerfish. If the anglerfish's victim is a smaller anglerfish, then fish that fish fish themselves fish: in short, "fish fish fish fish". But the fished anglerfish might themselves fish for yet smaller anglerfish, in which case "fish fish fish fish fish fish". And so on.
• On the subject of sea creatures, we might suppose that some sting rays are reared by members of their own kind, and therefore, Rays rays raise raise rays rays raise raise.
• Who polices? The police police. Then, who polices the police? "The police police police police". So, who polices the police police? "Police police police police police police." (see Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?)
• Ned and Ed edited it and netted it.
• Jiggle it a little, it'll open.
• A joke, in which a railway conductor, when asked how long will the train stay at the station, answered "From two to two to two two" (from 2 minutes to 2 o'clock until 2 minutes past 2 o'clock or 1:58 to 2:02). When asked the same question about a second train that will be at the station for the same period, he answered "From two to two to two two, too". The next day, he was asked the same questions but was less sure about the exact times. His answers were "From two to two to two to two to two two" and "From two to two to two to two to two two, too" (both trains will arrive at some point between 1:58 and 2:00, then will leave at some point between 2:00 and 2:02). The original version of this joke is from the Tamil comedy film Anbe Sivam
• Two ballerinas, who have the nicknames tutu one and tutu two, discuss the time of their appearance on stage. - I shall be dancing at two to two too tutu two.
• Wouldn't the sentence 'I want to put two hyphens between the words Fish and And, and And and Chips in my Fish-And-Chips sign' have been clearer if quotation marks had been placed before Fish, and between Fish and and, and and and And, and And and and, and and and Chips, and after Chips? (This is also an example of the use-mention distinction.)
• In the town of March in Cambridgeshire, England, there is an event called "March March March" where a group of academics and students gather in March during the third month of each year, and then walk briskly back to Cambridge, pausing at numerous convenient hostelries.
• On Puzzle Panel, the panellists were challenged to write a sentence consisting of four different homophones, and nothing else. The solution was "Right, Wright, write "rite" ". An expansion of that sentence would be Okay, Mr Wright, please put pen to paper to draw the word that means "ritual". The following series, a listener wrote in to say that he was going to open a unique shop in South Korea - it would be the only shop there to sell flat fish, blues music and shoe repair shop. It was the "sole Seoul sole soul and sole shop."
• An "anti-anti-satellite-satellite satellite" is a hypothetical satellite space weapon which would defend satellites from enemy satellites (anti-satellite satellites) attempting to destroy them.
• Similarly, certain modern radar detectors have a feature which detects police equipment used to detect radar detectors. This would make them "radar detector detector detectors".
• Comedian Daniel Tosh suggests naming a restaurant "Thank You For Calling, How May I Help You?", so that when customers call the restaurant, the employees must say, "Thank you for calling Thank You For Calling, How May I Help You?, how may I help you?"
• A yellow Yellowstone stone was found in Yellowstone National Park
• What kind of noise annoys a noisy oyster? A noisy noise annoys a noisy oyster.
• Major Major Major Major is a character in Catch-22, the novel by Joseph Heller. His first, middle, and family names are all "Major" and a computer with a "sense of humor almost as keen as his father's" promotes him to the rank of Major.
• "Dogs dogs dogs fight fight fight" is a grammatically correct sentence, meaning "Dogs which dogs that dogs fight also fight, themselves fight". This sentence can technically be lengthened infinitely, as long as the number of instances of the word "dogs" is equal to the number of instances of the word "fight".
• One-One was a racehorse. Two-Two was one, too. One-One won one race. Two-Two won one, too!
• In the late 1990s, when Desmond Tutu was archbishop of Cape Town, one of the clerics working closely with him was Bishop Michael Nuttall, who liked to describe himself as "number two to Tutu"
• If there were a log cabin dedicated to Abraham Lincoln made of Lincoln Logs in the city of Lincoln, it would be the Lincoln Lincoln Lincoln Log log cabin.
• There was a pub called the George and Dragon that decided to have a new sign made. When the sign was brought around for approval, the owner asked if there could be a little more space between George and and and and and Dragon.
• A newspaper editorial about the possible legality of a French city banning a certain dance: Can Cannes can can-can?
• Snot snot's not's not snot.
• Stephen Fry tells a story about a childhood friend called Michael Carmichael and wondered if when his parents wanted him to take a seat in the family's vehicle they might say, "Get in the Carmichael car Michael Carmichael."
• A ship-shipping ship, shipping shipping ships for example
• When playing chess for money against your buddy from the Czech Republic whose preferred payment method when losing is by cheque, then as you make your winning move you can say "Time to get my cheque made, 'cause you're check mate, my czech mate".

Had had had

Main article: James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

The linguistic folklore has several examples involving the verb "had". They are considered to be part of professional humor of linguists and included in many English language primers for foreigners for adding some amusement to the tedious work of language learning.

• James, while John had had "had", had had "had had"; "had had" had had a better effect on the teacher.
• John, when playing a game of Scrabble against Dick who, whilst pondering the degree of legitimacy the last word that Harry (who had had 'had') had had had had, had had 'had', had had 'had'. Had 'had' had more letters, he would have played it again.
• Pupils in a class were given the challenge of creating a sentence with the maximum run of consecutive uses of the word "had", as in the preceding examples. Hadley did very well but did not take the prize (explanatory remarks in brackets):

  Had[ley] had had "had had had had... [totalling 16 instances as in the above example]"; had Had had "had had had had...[17 instances]", Had would have won.

• The above sentence contains 40 consecutive "had"s. Using this method of construction it is possible to construct arbitrarily long strings of "had"s.

In Jasper Fforde's The Well of Lost Plots, "Jurisfiction" discusses policing repetition of "had had" and "that that" in works of literature, providing Fforde with an excuse to write 11 consecutive "hads":

Lady Cavendish stood up and gathered her thoughts. “Indeed, the uses of had had and that that have to be strictly controlled; they can interrupt the imaginotransference quite dramatically, causing readers to go back over the sentence in confusion, something we try to avoid.”

“Go on.”

“It’s mostly an unlicensed-usage problem. At the last count David Copperfield alone had had had had sixty-three times, all but ten unapproved. Pilgrim’s Progress may also be a problem due to its had had/that that ratio.”

“So what’s the problem in Progress?”

“That that had that that ten times but had had had had only thrice. Increased had had usage had had to be overlooked, but not if the number exceeds that that that usage.”

“Hmm,” said the Bellman, “I thought had had had had TGC’s approval for use in Dickens? What’s the problem?”

“Take the first had had and that that in the book by way of example," explained Lady Cavendish. "You would have thought that that first had had had had good occasion to be seen as had, had you not? Had had had approval but had had had not; equally it is true to say that that that that had had approval but that that other that that had not.”

“So the problem with that other that that was that … ?”

“That that other-other that that had had approval.”

“Okay,” said the Bellman, whose head was in danger of falling apart like a chocolate orange, “let me get this straight: David Copperfield, unlike Pilgrim’s Progress, had had had, had had had had. Had had had had TGC’s approval?”

Buffalo buffalo

Main article: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo

Buffalo is a city in New York; a buffalo is any of several animals, such as a water buffalo or American bison (the plural is also buffalo); and to buffalo someone is to outwit or intimidate them. Thus, the sentence:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

can be rephrased as:

Bison from upstate New York who are intimidated by other bison in their community also intimidate other bison in their community.

With some circularity of reference, this also parses up to 11 instances of the word:

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.

meaning:

Bison from upstate New York who are intimidated by other bison in their community also intimidate other bison who are intimidated by other bison in their community.

This is the equivalent of "Animal Verbs Animal" where Animal is a descriptive phrase of the form "City's animals intimidated by animals of the same type from the same city".

A simpler variation follows the form "Animals Animals Verb Verb Animals", such as:

Badgers badgers badger badger badgers. (Those badgers that badgers harass also harass badgers.)

In this case, the verb and noun are distinct, because the plural noun "badgers" has an "s", whereas the plural verb conjugation "[they] badger" does not.

A similar variation discusses cows from the Isle of Wight:

Cowes cows Cowes cows cow cow Cowes cows.

Another variation says:

Foul fowl foul fowl foul foul foul fowl.

That that

Main article: that

"That" can be repeated five, seven, or infinitely many times in a grammatically correct sentence.

Esau Wood

Main article: Esau Wood

Esau Wood sawed wood. Esau Wood would saw wood. All the wood Esau Wood saw, Esau Wood would saw. In other words, all the wood Esau saw to saw, Esau sought to saw. Oh, the wood Wood would saw! And, oh the wood-saw with which Wood would saw wood! But one day, Wood's wood-saw would saw no wood, and thus the wood Wood sawed was not the wood Wood would saw if Wood's wood-saw would saw wood. Now, Wood would saw wood with a wood-saw that would saw wood, so Esau sought a saw that would saw wood. One day, Esau saw a saw saw wood as no other wood-saw Wood saw would saw wood. In fact, of all the wood-saws Wood ever saw saw wood, Wood never saw a wood-saw that would saw wood as the wood-saw Wood saw saw wood would saw wood, and I never saw a wood-saw that would saw as the wood-saw Wood saw would saw until I saw Esau Wood saw wood with the wood-saw Wood saw saw wood. Now Wood saws wood with the wood-saw Wood saw saw wood.

Nose Knows No Snows

• A homophonous phrase that is unique in that every word in the sentence is different, yet it sounds as if the word "nose" is simply repeated four times. The only (arguable) flaw is that the sibilant "S" at the beginning of "Snows" contrasts with the "Z" sound taken on by the other "S"es ("essez"). Spelled phonetically, the sentence comes out as "noz noz nos noz" which, strictly speaking, is not homophonous.

Last last last

Said by a cobbler to a clumsy apprentice who has damaged all but one of his tools: "make that last last last!" [adjective, noun, verb]

Other languages

• In Arabic, طرقت الباب حتى كلمتني فلما كلّ متني كلمتني/ فقالت يا اسماعيل صبرا فقلت لها يا سما(ء) عيل صبري is a rubai usually told as a riddle because of the use of phonetics to achieve double meanings. When read it sounds like the same word is repeated three times and twice in each line respectively, and is pronounced "taraqt el bab hata kalmatni falama kall matni kalmatni/ fgalt li yasma'il sabran fglt laha yasma 'il sabri". It can be translated as "I knocked on the door until my arm hurt so when my arm hurt she talked to me / She said Isma'il patience so I said Asma I have run out of patience".

• In Belarusian there is a phrase "Баду ды буду я Буду ў буду" (Badu dy budu ya budu u budu) which means "Am and will be goring Buddha into a wagon".

• South Slavic languages:

• In Serbian and Croatian, the sentence "Gore gore gore gore", means "up there the hills are burning worse" (however, the words have different accents). If you wanted to say that the woods in the upper hills burn slower than the woods in the lower in Serbian, you could probably say the "gore gore gore gore" even if not asked to say it with the same words. The sentence "Gore gore gore gore gore gore gore" would mean "up there, its worse that the worse upper hills burn worse in the higher parts " The Gore means hills or mountains as noun, Worse as the comparative of adjective, burn as the noun and means "up".

• In Bulgarian there are two such phrases, "Той бил бил Бил (Toy bill bill Bill)" means "He had beaten Bill (the case of the verb in the sentence implies this was told to me by somebody else, I was not a witness).". The other phrase is "На граничната застава застава Застава (Nah granichnatah zastava zastava Zastava" which means "A Zastava car goes and stands at the frontier post)".

• In Bengali, "Baba, banaba na banaba na?" means "Father, will you make it or not make it?".

• In Catalan, "Cap cap cap" means "no head enters". A longer form is "En cap cap cap el que cap en aquest cap" that means "in no head enters what enters in this head".

• Also in Catalan, "Déu deu deu" means "God owes ten". Often merged with precedent phrase to result "En cap cap cap que Déu deu deu" meaning "In no head enters that God owes ten" or "Nobody can believe/understand that God owes ten".

• In Cantonese Chinese:

• the phrase "gò go gó gò gòu gwó gò go gó gò" (in Yale romanization, Chinese characters: 嗰個哥哥高過嗰個哥哥) means "That older brother is taller than that older brother".

• the phrase "gǒng gǒng góng gǒng gòng gǒng gǒng, gǒng gǒng gǒng gǒng" means, "Grandfather says, 'a can clank knocked Grandfather dizzy.'"

• In Mandarin Chinese:

• The poem Lion-Eating Poet in the Stone Den, "Shī Shì shí shī shǐ", which is written entirely with words that are pronounced "shi" (albeit with different tones).
• "mā ma mà mǎ ma? mǎ mà mā ma ma?" (妈妈骂马吗？ 马骂妈妈吗？)means "Does Mother scold horses or do horses scold Mother?" However, Mandarin is a tonal language, so the words above are not true homophones. This sentence is used as an exercise to show the contrastive nature of Chinese tones and practice their correct realizations.

• In Dutch

• "Als In Bergen, bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen, bergen bergen bergen bergen bergen." Roughly meaning: "If in Bergen, heaps of mountains salvage heaps of mountains, then heaps of mountains salvage heaps of mountains".
• "Als achter vliegen vliegen vliegen, vliegen vliegen vliegen achterna" If flies fly behind flies, then flies fly behind flies.".
• "Als nog niet begraven graven graven graven, graven graven gravengraven" If counts who are not yet buried, dig graves, then counts dig count-graves.
• "Motten motten motten" . In the Netherlands, this translates into "Moths like moths". In Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium, this translates into "Moths hit moths". Although the meanings are different, in both cases, 'motten' used as a verb is more slang than proper Dutch.
• "zout zout zout zout zout zout": Salty salt salts salty salt saltily

• In Filipino

• The interrogative sentence "Bababa ba?", which is translated to English as "[Is someone] Going down?", is used when a driver asks his passengers if they intend to go out of the vehicle. An extension is the following exchange in an elevator: "Baba, bababa ba?" "Bababa." "Ba, bababa!" which means: "Baba (proper name), [is this elevator] going down?" "[Yes, it is] going down." "Oh! (amazed) So it's going down!")
• The interrogative sentence "Kakaba-kaba ka ba?" literally translates as "Are you nervous?" It is also the title of a satirical movie directed by Filipino film director Mike de Leon.

• In Finnish

• "Kokko, kokoa kokoon koko kokko. Koko kokkoko? Koko kokko." means "Kokko, build up the whole bonfire. The whole bonfire? (Yes, ) The whole bonfire."

• Note 1: This sentence is fairly easy to understand for any native Finnish speaking person.
• Note 2: In colloquial and dialectal Finnish language the letter "a" in this sentence can be replaced by letter "o". The result is: "Kokko, kokoo kokoon koko kokko. Koko kokkoko? Koko kokko."
• Note 3: By repeating some words the sentence can be extended to "Kokko, kokoo kokoon koko kokko. Koko kokkoko kokoon? Koko kokko kokoon." which means "Kokko, build up the whole bonfire. Build up the whole bonfire? (Yes, ) Build up the whole bonfire."

• "Piilevät piilevät piileviä piileviä piilevissä piilevissä" which could be translated as "Diatoms are hiding from concealed algae in hidden pond scum".

• Note: Even a native Finnish speaking person may not understand this sentence immediately, since the constituent parts of this sentence are not easy to recognise when the sentence is heard or read first time.

• "Tuu kattoon kattoon kun kärpänen tapettiin tapettiin" (dialectal), meaning "Come to the ceiling to take a look at a fly that was killed on the wallpaper".
• "Etsivät etsivät etsivät etsivät etsivät", meaning "The searching investigators searched for, and found, the searching investigators".
• "Älä suoraa päätä päätä päätä koskevia asioita", meaning "Don't decide issues concerning the head straight away".
• "Voi voi, kun voi voi olla kallista", meaning "Oh dear, the butter can be so expensive".
• "Pesäpalloilija yritti kopeilla kopeilla kopeilla kopeilla kopeilla", meaning "A (Finnish) baseball player tried to be haughty with (his/her) haughty catches at haughty huts".
• "Vihdoin vihdoin vihdoin", meaning "Finally I whisked with whiskes of birch twigs".

• Note: This is useful phrase when describing a visit in Finnish sauna. "Vihta" is a bunch of leafy, fragrant boughs of silver birch used to gently beat oneself in a sauna.

• "Haen lakkaa satamasta kun lakkaa satamasta", meaning "I will get varnish (or cloudberries) from the harbor when it stops raining.".

• In French : "Si ton tonton tond ton tonton, ton tonton tondu sera." Which gives literally: If your uncle shaves your uncle, your uncle shaved will be.
  • Also in French: "Si six scies scient six cyprès, six cents scies scient six cents cyprès." Which translates to: "If six saws saw six cypress trees, six hundred saws saw six hundred cypress trees." (Si, six, scies, scient, and the first syllable of cyprès are all pronounced more or less the same in French - similar to the English "see".)
  • Also in French: "Le ver vert va vers le verre vert." Which translates to: "The green worm goes toward the green glass." This can be extended to "Le vers 'Le ver vert va vers le verre vert' est en vert" meaning "The verse 'The green worm goes toward the green glass' is in green". A variation is La rivière va vers les verres du ver vert, "The river flows toward the green worm's glasses." Another variation is "Vingt vers vinrent vers vingt verres de vin vert" which means "Twenty worms came towards twenty glasses of green wine." ("vingt ver", "vinrent vers", "vingt verres" and "vin vert" are all pronounced more or less the same.)

• In German, "Wenn hinter Fliegen Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen hinterher" means "If flies fly after flies, flies fly behind flies." (Same meaning as the Dutch Als achter vliegen vliegen vliegen, vliegen vliegen vliegen achterna). A somewhat more rhythmic version is: "Wenn Fliegen hinter Fliegen fliegen, fliegen Fliegen Fliegen nach." The same works with "Robben":"Wenn Robben hinter Robben robben, robben Robben Robben nach." meaning "If seals crawl after seals, seals crawl behind seals."

Also in German, "Die Männer, die vor dem Schokoladenladen Laden laden, laden Ladenmädchen gerne ein" means "The men who are loading shutters in front of the chocolate shop like to ask out the shop girls" (Variant: "Ladenjungen, die Schokoladeladen laden, laden Ladenmädchen zum Tanz ein"). "Ich will in Essen Essen essen" means "I want to eat food in Essen".

• In Swiss German, "Da da da? Da da da. Da da da da!". A conversation between two women from Schleitheim on a train discussing whether a toddler is allowed to lick the windowpane: "He's allowed to do that?" "He can do that." "That you let him do that!". (In German: "Darf das [Kind] das [tun]?" "Das [Kind] darf das [tun]." "Dass das [Kind] das [tun] darf!")

• In Hebrew, אשה נעלה נעלה נעלה נעלה את הדלת בפני בעלה (Isha na'ala na'ala na'ala na'ala et hadelet bifnei ba'ala) means "A noble woman put on her shoe, locked the door in her husband's face". 'נעלה' (na'ala) means 'she put on (footwear)' and also 'her shoe', but also means 'she locked'. 'עלה' ('alah') means 'raise', from which the niphal 'נעלה' means 'exalted' or 'noble'.

• In Hindi, "गया गया गया" (Gaya gaya Gaya) means "A man named Gaya went to the city Gaya." Gaya is a name in India, a well-known city in the state of Bihar, India and also translates as "went to".

• In Hungarian, "A követ követ követ." means "The ambassador follows a stone.".

• In Icelandic
  • Bóndinn á Á á á á beit means "The farmer on (á, prep.) Á (noun, means river, name of farm) has (á, verb) a sheep (á, noun) that is grazing."
  • Barbara Ara bar Ara Araba bara rabbabara means "Barbara, daughter of Ari, only gave Ari the Arab rhubarb."
  • Séð og og og og og Heyrt " means " Seen and and and and and Heard"

• In Indonesian, "Kakek, kuku kaki kakakku kaku-kaku", means "Grandfather, my older sibling's toenails are stiff."

• In Irish Tá leis-leis leis leis leis leis. A subsidiary [leis-] thigh [leis] of its/his [leis i.e with him, belonging to him] has been stripped [tá ... leis] by him [leis] also [leis]. There are two people or animals being referred to.

• In Italian "Seren sarà, se non sarà seren si rasserenerà" meaning "It will be clear (sky), if it not will be clear it clear will become". "L'ascia lascia la scia", meaning "the axe leaves a track".

• In Japanese, 「裏庭には二羽庭には二羽鶏がいる」Uraniwa niwa niwa niwa niwa niwa niwatori ga iru. (There are two chickens in the back yard and two in the front yard.) is a well-known tongue-twister. Also: 東欧を覆おう (Tōō wo ōou) is pronounced as a continuous /o/ following the t. (The W [when Romanized] is silent.) It means "Let's cover Eastern Europe."

• In Japanese, 「李も桃も桃のうち」"Sumomo mo momo mo momo no uchi." (Both plums and peaches are peaches.)

• In Korean Gyeongsang dialect, "Gaga gaga ga?" means "Is that person (first gaga) Ga family's member (second gaga)? (last ga indicates it is a question)".

• In Latin, "Malo malo malo malo" means "I'd rather be in an apple tree than a bad man in adversity." A similar but shorter sentence is 'Malo mala mala', meaning "I prefer bad apples." In Latin, a similarly constructed sentence is found, though not of homonyms, but is aurally and visually very close and which would be made even more difficult if shown without spaces between words, as was often done in early Latin texts: mimi numinum niuium minimi munium nimium uini muniminum imminui uiui minimum uolunt; which translates to "The tiny mimes of the snow spirits in no way wish, while they are alive, the tremendous task of [serving] the wine of the defenses to be diminished." The problem of long series of unconnected minims in blackletter eventually led to the development of the dotted i and the j.

• In Malay, lovers can say "Sayang, sayang, sayang sayang sayang. Sayang sayang sayang?", which translates to "Darling, I love you. Do you love me?". This is a true homophone as the same word is used for pronoun and verb. The person being asked can even reply "Sayang", or "Sayang sayang sayang", in return.

• In Norwegian, the sentence "Avstanden mellom Ole og og og og og Kari har økt", meaning roughly "The distance between Ole and 'and' and 'and' and Kari has been increased.", could be uttered to explain that three words on a sign ("Kari og Ole") have been moved further away from each other.

• In Papiamento, "No ta Tatata ta tata di Tatata, sino ta tata di Tatata su tata ta tata di Tatata". Roughly meaning: "It's not Tatata who's the father of Tatata, but the father of Tatata's father is the father of Tatata."

• In Persian, the word جعفر in "جعفري ديدم كه بر جعفر سوار، جعفري مي خورد و از جعفر گذشت" is used to mean the name of a person, animal, celery and creek. The sentence translates to "I saw Jaffar (name), riding a jaffar, eating celery, crossing over a creek".

• In Polish, the sentence "Wydrze wydrzę wydrze wydrze wydrze wydrzę" meaning "Small whelp of an otter will extort another whelp of other otter."

• In colloquial, dialectal Portuguese spoken in Minas Gerais (Brazil), the sentence "Popó, pó pô pó? Pó pô, pô" means "Popó, can I put powder? Yes, of course you can" - "Popó" is a nickname, "pó" is a short word for "Pode" (Can), "pô" stands for "pôr" (put), "pó" means [coffee] powder and "pô" gives emphasis. The answer is an affirmative sentence and "Pó" now means "Pode" (Can).

• In Portuguese "O doce perguntou pro doce, qual é o doce mais doce que o doce. O doce respondeu pro doce que o doce mais doce que doce é o doce de batata doce." In this sentence, the word doce functions both as a noun (sweet/candy/dessert) and as an adjective (sweet). When placed next to "mais" (more) it turns into adverb "sweeter". The expression translates as: "A sweet asked a sweet, "which sweet is sweeter than sweet?". The sweet replied to the other sweet that the sweet sweeter than sweet is the sweet potato dessert".

• In Russian:
  • "Косил косой косой косой." means "A cockeyed [man] reaped with a slanting scythe."
  • A well-known brainteaser is the task to fragment the following sequence into words to make a meaningful text: "колоколоколокола" (Answer: "кол около колокола", meaning "the stake (is) near the bell", or "колокол около кола", meaning "the bell (is) near the stake", or "кол, о, кол около кола", meaning "The stake, oh, the stake near (another) stake")

• In Spanish:
  • "¿Cómo 'cómo como'? ¡Como como como!" means "What do you mean 'how do I eat'? I eat like I eat!", provided the correct emphasis is placed on each como.
  • In colloquial Spanish, "¡Papá! Papa pa' Papa, papá." means "Dad! Potato for the Pope, dad." Pa' is short for para (for, to).
  • "Traje traje." means "I brought [the] suit."
  • "Adiós a Dios." means "Goodbye to God."
  • "Quien a María amaría, amaría a María." means "Who would love Mary, would love Mary."
  • "Me saco el saco." means "I get my coat off."
  • "Ana nada da a Adán" means "Ana doesn't give anything to Adam."
  • "¡Ay! ahí hay." means "Oh! there there is."
  • "Sabia savia, ¿sabía?" means "Wise sap, did you know?"
  • "Ve la vela, vela." means "Watch the candle, watch it."

• A short story by Robert Sheckley Shall We Have a Little Talk? (a nominee for the 1965 Nebula Award for Best Novelette) describes a planet where language mutates so fast that an Earthman colonizer cannot catch up with it: the yesterday's version he learned overnight hypnopaedically, tomorrow is no longer in use. The Earthman accepted his defeat when he was addressed thusly: Mun mun-mun-mun. Mun mun mun; mun mun mun; mun mun. Mun, mun mun mun--mun mun mun. Mun-mun? Mun mun mun mun!.

• In Swedish, Norwegian and Danish, "Far, får får får? Får får lamm!" which translates to "Daddy, do sheep give birth to sheep? (No,) sheep give birth to lambs!" Extended variant is: "Får får får? Nej, får får ej får för får får lamm." (Does sheep give birth to sheep? No, sheep does not give birth to sheep because sheep gives birth to lambs). Another version is "Far får får, får får lamm" (Father receives sheep, sheep gives birth to lambs)
• In colloquial Swedish, "Nallar nallar nallars nallar?" which translates to "Do teddy bears steal (other) teddy bears' teddy bears?"

• In Norwegian and Swedish, "Bar barbar-bar-barbar bar bar barbar-bar-barbar" which translates to: "Naked barbarian who often frequent bars for barbarians carried another naked barbarian who often frequent bars for barbarians"

• In dialectal Swedish (west), "Ställ'et i stället i stället" i.e. "Ställ det i stället i stället" which translates to: "Put it in the stand/rack instead" Extended :"Ställ istället stället i stallet, din stolle!" which translates to :" Put instead the rack in the stable, you lunatic!" and "Ställ stall-Stellan i stället i stallet istället för stället i stall-stället" which means "put stable Stellan in the rack in the stable instead of the stableplace rack"

• Tamil, in the 12th couplet of the Thirukkural, it says, "Thuppaarkkuth thuppaaya thuppaakkith thuppaarkkuth thuppaaya thuuvum mazhai". Roughly translated into English as "The rain begets the food we eat; And forms a food and drink concrete". Many such couplets (with homophones) are found in this literary work.

• In Turkish, "'Müdür müdür müdür' müdür?" means "'Is the manager [really] the manager?', is that the question we are discussing?". Also in Turkish, "Yüzeyden yüze yüze, yüz yüze yüzleşmiş yüz yüzü yüz." means "Skin hundred pelts that are facing each other as you are swimming above the water."

• In Broad Scots Doric dialect (Scotland), " Fit fit fits fit fit?" can be more easily understood if you imagine a Buckie fisherman in a shoe shop looking in a puzzled manner at a pair of shoes and asking: "What foot fits what foot?" i.e. "Which shoe fits which foot?"

• In Slovak dialect (eastern), "Tato, ta to ty to tu?" which translates to: "Daddy, is it you who's here?"

• In a Broad Yorkshire Accent "Tintintin" is "It isn't (t'int) in the (in't) tin"

• In colloquial American and Canadian English, the phrase "Dead-headed Ed had edited it" comes out as "DedededEd-ededededed".

External links

• You can say that again