A Conversation for Oddities of English
A Punctuation Oddity
MacDafydd Started conversation Feb 14, 2002
The example, "Gerald had had had had while Arthur had had had had had had had the teacher's approval," can be even more oddly expressed as follows, "Gerald while Arthur had had had had had had had had had had had the teacher's approval." This, too, can be punctuated to provide the same meaning as the original example and, I believe, represents the maximum consecutive meaningful use of a single word in English:
"Gerald, while Arthur had had 'had had,' had had 'had;' 'had had' had had the teacher's approval."
That's 11 hads in a row!
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A Punctuation Oddity
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