THAT’S ENGLISH

Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia University is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have eight different meanings by placing ONE WORD in all possible positions in the sentence:

”I hit him in the eye yesterday.”

1.     ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did.)

2.      I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him.)

3.     I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others.)

4.     I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye.)

5.     I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.)

6.     I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn’t have another eye..)

7.     I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today.)

8.     I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for today.)