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- This topic has 40 replies, 24 voices, and was last updated 12 years, 9 months ago by soliek.
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January 10, 2012 11:23 pm at 11:23 pm #601574Ken ZaynMember
I know many of these are British but dont they sound great? Post your words also. (They must be in the dictionary).
Flummoxed
kerfuffle
cantankerous
balderdash
gobbledygook
blunderbuss
nincompoop
lacksadaisical
mollycoddle
rambunetious
January 10, 2012 11:42 pm at 11:42 pm #843309yentingyentaParticipantonomatopoeia
January 10, 2012 11:45 pm at 11:45 pm #843310WolfishMusingsParticipantHow about words that are only common in the negative?
Nonplussed
Disheveled
Ruthless (I got Eeees on this one once while playing Scrabble. We play a cutthroat game where challenge-losers forfeit a turn. One time, I played “ruth” which earned me a challenge. I figured that if you can be ruthless, you can have ruth. Sure enough, it was in the Scrabble Dictionary and she lost a turn.)
The Wolf
January 10, 2012 11:52 pm at 11:52 pm #843311moi aussiMemberfloccinaucinihilipilification
January 11, 2012 12:04 am at 12:04 am #843312OneOfManyParticipantFor Wolf: unkempt (kempt is one of my favorite words :D).
January 11, 2012 12:11 am at 12:11 am #843313ED IT ORParticipantpiffellation!
January 11, 2012 12:12 am at 12:12 am #843314supergirl613Membersupercalifragilisticexpealidoshes(Mary Poppins in case you had a hard time reading the word)
January 11, 2012 1:08 am at 1:08 am #843315shuliParticipantninconpoop!! i remeber my bus driver calling me that!
January 11, 2012 1:21 am at 1:21 am #843316wanderingchanaParticipantPneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis
January 11, 2012 1:24 am at 1:24 am #843317wanderingchanaParticipantAntidisestablishmentarianism
January 11, 2012 3:03 am at 3:03 am #843318OneOfManyParticipantquiddity
bdellium
alfalfa
gneiss
jodhpurs
ukulele
yucca
gigue
Occident
January 11, 2012 8:43 am at 8:43 am #843319sem graduateMemberHow about if everyone who posts these strange words educates the rest of us by supplying their definitions…
January 11, 2012 9:10 am at 9:10 am #843320Ken ZaynMemberwanderingchana your first word is awesome! No wonder its not in the dictionary – it would fill 3 pages!
supergirl613 lol. That sounds quite attrocious! So you cant complain if I include
“well I’ll be Jiggered”
from Little Lord Sauntleroy
January 11, 2012 11:34 am at 11:34 am #843321Shticky GuyParticipantHow about the hill in New Zealand called Taumatawhakatangihangakoauawotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu
Or try these official words:
hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian
lamprophony
finnimbrun
floccinaucinihilipitification
phenakism
pulveratricious
rastaquouere
scopperloit
tyrotoxism
zaberism
gambrinous
gargalesthesia
spiffing
or this word for the day before yesterday: nudiustertian
January 11, 2012 11:42 am at 11:42 am #843322HorrifiedParticipantgobsmacked
January 11, 2012 11:45 am at 11:45 am #843323HorrifiedParticipantto ‘bodge’ it up with a bit of ‘bodge’
geordie
January 11, 2012 5:06 pm at 5:06 pm #843324HaLeiViParticipantOrthochlorobenzalmalononitrile
— otherwise known as Pepper Spray
January 11, 2012 10:20 pm at 10:20 pm #843325skiaddictMemberhaha btw do you know how if you say a normal sounding word for like a minute straight it sounds totally mental? like lets say pumpkinpumpkinpumpkinpumpkinpumpkinpumpkinpumpkinpumpkinpumpkinpunmpkinpumpkinpumpkinpumkinpumpkinpumkinpumpkinpumpkinpumpkinpumpkinpumpkin ha ha it sounds like the weirdest word ever pumpkin for supper
January 12, 2012 12:50 am at 12:50 am #843326wanderingchanaParticipantKen Zayn – when I was little, that word was supposed to have been the longest in the English language, and our spelling teacher gave us extra credit if we got it right on a test. I think we studied it harder than the rest!
January 12, 2012 1:12 am at 1:12 am #843327BaalHaboozeParticipantskiaddict: LOL
i just tried that at supper tonight – picklepicklepicklepicklepicklepicklepickle, ha ha ha ha, I got so many words that I have to try it with!! words like chimney, platypus, or even hiccup!
January 12, 2012 2:17 pm at 2:17 pm #843328Ken ZaynMemberAnthropomorphic
onomatopoeia
or who remembers jabberwocky
January 12, 2012 2:36 pm at 2:36 pm #843329soliekMember“jabberwocky”
is not a word. neither is brillig, slithy, toves, gyre, gimble, wabe, mimsy, etc…
January 12, 2012 3:20 pm at 3:20 pm #843330BTGuyParticipantoxymoron
egalitarian
pterodactyl
grist
umpteen
enth
moot
January 12, 2012 4:15 pm at 4:15 pm #843331tzaddiqMemberhow’s this for stange English words
winklepicker,
spondulicks,
Mungo,
mulligrubs,
and impignorate.
January 12, 2012 4:30 pm at 4:30 pm #843332shmoolik 1ParticipantTOLERANCE haven’t heard that word in a long time
January 12, 2012 4:30 pm at 4:30 pm #843333BTGuyParticipantThe correct spelling of a word I posted is “nth”, and not “enth”.
Sorry…
January 12, 2012 4:38 pm at 4:38 pm #843334ayshosheeParticipantone of my favorites is brouhaha (not sure if i spelled it right)
January 12, 2012 6:37 pm at 6:37 pm #843335ED IT ORParticipantYup you spelt it right
January 12, 2012 11:28 pm at 11:28 pm #843336LuvMeMemberhippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia – fear of long words, and NO i didn’t use a dictionary or copy and paste it! LOL
January 13, 2012 1:29 pm at 1:29 pm #843337uneeqParticipantI’m veering off a bit, but how about some of the most interesting, grammatically valid sentences-
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher.
January 13, 2012 2:02 pm at 2:02 pm #843338BaalHaboozeParticipantuneeq
Can you please explain those? I’d love to understand them
January 13, 2012 2:50 pm at 2:50 pm #843339soliekMemberyou got that wrong.
James, while John had had “had”, had had had “had;” “had had” had had a better effect on the teacher.
the “while” should probably be changed to “whereas,” too.
“while John had had had”
is a subordinate clause. the primary idea being conveyed in that sentence is that john had had “had.” next, your sentence would be a run on without the semicolon (or perhaps an emdash would also be acceptable). You also failed to denote which instances of the word “had” were references to the use of the word and which were verbs.
on to the buffalo sentence.
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
you got that wrong too.
“Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.”
is the correct sentence–minus a bit of punctuation. once again there is a subordinate clause which must be indicated by commas.
Buffalo buffalo, Buffalo buffalo buffalo, buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
Buffalo (as in the city) buffalo (as in the animal), Buffalo (city) buffalo (animal) buffalo (bully), buffalo (bully) Buffalo (city) buffalo (animal).
in other words:
Those Buffalo buffalo, who, ironically enough, are themselves buffaloed by Buffalo buffalo, buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
now ordinarily i wouldnt nitpick as much, but i know that you got those sentences from wikipedia where the grammar is explained in great detail and you therefore should have known better.
January 13, 2012 3:02 pm at 3:02 pm #843340BaalHaboozeParticipantnever mind, just googled them. pretty neat, eh?
January 13, 2012 4:32 pm at 4:32 pm #843341BTGuyParticipantlol..
You guys lost me at had…or was it “had”? And then again at Buffalo…or was it buffalo?
January 13, 2012 5:03 pm at 5:03 pm #843342soliekMemberthere are three definitions of buffalo:
1) the city: Buffalo, NY
2) the animal (bison)
3) to bully
usage 1) the city is a proper noun and therefore must be capitalized; therefore when you see a capitalized “Buffalo” in the sentence assume it is the city.
the next two are a bit more difficult to figure out without punctuation, as the punctuation gives the sentence tone and thus, context.
on to had had and had.
had had is an alternate form of had when referring to the verb in the past tense.
hadpast participle, past tense of have (Verb)
Verb:
Possess, own, or hold
as per that definition had had should be incorrect, but there are specific instances where each usage is proper. the statement that the teacher was more pleased with had had expresses a thought without context and is therefore misleading.
had on its own is a verb which denotes previous possession.
had had is a pluperfect which denotes both tense, in this case past, and perspective. in other words, whereas had refers to actual possession, where the possession is the focus of the discussion, had had refers instead to the time of possession, or a time frame of possession.
example for had: i once had a dog named scruffy.
example for had had: i had had a root canal before, but this one still seemed like pain beyond anything i had ever experiences.
the focus of had’s use in a sentence is to tell you that the subject is in possession of something.
the focus of had had in a sentence is to tell you that the subject experienced something, be it actual possession (as in i had had dogs before, but this one was particularly rowdy) or a description of a past event (as in the example with the root canal.)
the pluperfect is not exclusive to had had and the second had can usually be replaced with something more specific.
getting back to the example with the dog, “i had owned dogs before, but this one was particularly rowdy” would be a perfect use of the pluperfect (pun intended).
another indication of when to use or how to recognize a pluperfect is the timeline of the sentence.
“i had a dog.” tells a story about a man and a dog and then stops. it fixes on one specific point in time and moves no further.
the pluperfect had had or had (insert participle here) refers back to a fixed point in time and then moves you forward.
let’s examine the man who had owned dogs before. he is telling you that he had owned dogs before, or had had dogs before, however is or was surprised by the dog he acquired either sometime after his previous possession of dogs or the present. a sentence with a pluperfect has a timeline–a sentence with a simple verb does not.
therefore, depending on the message you are trying to convey, you may choose had or had had; however, the terms are NOT interchangeable as implied by that sentence.
January 13, 2012 5:48 pm at 5:48 pm #843343ha ha ha haMemberuneeq that sound like the tongue twister
Q:how much wood would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck would chuck wood?
A: a wood chuck would chuck so much wood if a wood chuck would chuck wood!!
January 13, 2012 5:57 pm at 5:57 pm #843344BTGuyParticipantHi soliek.
You seemed to cover and explain the tense of words with quite a degree of expertise. Very impressive.
So, if I were to say, “I had a tense lesson,” that would be an accurate statement.
And if I were a writer paid by the word, it might suit me to say, “I had had a tense tense lesson.” that, too, would be valid.
; )
January 13, 2012 6:25 pm at 6:25 pm #843345WIYMemberhierarchical
January 14, 2012 10:06 pm at 10:06 pm #843346uneeqParticipantSoliek: now ordinarily i wouldnt nitpick as much, but i know that you got those sentences from wikipedia where the grammar is explained in great detail and you therefore should have known better.
I did know better. I was going for shock value, so naturally I didn’t put in the punctuation.
January 14, 2012 10:20 pm at 10:20 pm #843347Shticky GuyParticipantYaberdaberdoo
January 14, 2012 10:52 pm at 10:52 pm #843348soliekMemberi teach english, btguy 😀
and yes, that would technically be correct, albeit very confusing 😛 and tense-lesson wold probably be hyphenated in that case to avoid confusion…but tzarich iyun 😀
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