An Infinitely Long Sentence Made of Just One Word

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]An infinitely long, grammatically correct sentence built from just one word: buffalo. It's a beautiful word, a very special word. Not only is it a noun, it's its own plural. One buffalo, two buffalo, many buffalo. And if you capitalize the word buffalo, you get a city in upstate New York, which is also a noun. Unless you make it an adjective.

[00:00:22]Oh, and it's also a verb, meaning to intimidate. Kind of like to cow, or to bully, or man, we're really scared of bovines, aren't we? Anyway, here comes the fun part. Because buffalo has these three different meanings, the following is a complete sentence. Buffalo buffalo buffalo. As in, the city of Buffalo is being terrorized by buffalo. Using the adjective form, we can extend the sentence to four words. Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo. Clarifying that these buffalo terrorizing the city of Buffalo are not outsiders. They're buffalo buffalo. Finally, adding a fifth word, we can express that these animals aren't just terrorizing their city. They're terrorizing each other. These buffalo [music] buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

[00:01:04]But now, surely we've hit a wall at five buffalo. We've already attached an adjective to both subject and object. I mean, what more could we do? Unless.

[00:01:13]Consider the sentence people I know hunt squirrels. I don't know why that sentence popped into my mind. Don't analyze it. Anyway, let's analyze it.

[00:01:21]The object, squirrels, is a noun. Hunt is the verb, but then what's the subject? Well, it's people I know, which, when you think about it, is really a whole sentence, I know people, squeezed into the form of a noun, people I know. Do you see where this is going?

[00:01:37]The sentence buffalo buffalo buffalo can also be arranged into the noun phrase buffalo buffalo buffalo. If this is understandably a little confusing, often it helps to add the word that. People that I know, people I know. Buffalo that buffalo buffalo, buffalo buffalo buffalo. Clear? With this new construction, we can now make a six-word sentence. Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

[00:02:04]Or why not seven? Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo. Or even eight. Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo. And this is the canonical sentence that you'll find on Wikipedia, which roughly translates to bison from buffalo that bison from buffalo intimidate intimidate bison from buffalo. Although, I've always wondered, why not make the object as complicated as the subject, which would give you an 11-word sentence? Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

[00:02:40]Which, of course, means bison from buffalo that bison from buffalo intimidate intimidate bison from buffalo that bison from buffalo intimidate.

[00:02:48]Thank goodness that Wikipedia is editable. But, 11 words is surely the longest buffalo sentence we can make, right? Right? Well, let's take a closer look at the key innovation, replacing the noun buffalo with the noun phrase buffalo buffalo buffalo. The thing is, there's nothing stopping us from taking that same process and applying it to the nouns within that noun phrase, which gives us the seven-word noun phrase buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo. And this isn't even the whole sentence. And this isn't even the whole sentence, it's just the subject of the sentence. If we have these grammatically intricate buffalo intimidate other grammatically intricate buffalo just like themselves, we get a truly incomprehensible 15-word sentence.

[00:03:31]Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

[00:03:40]And the crazy thing is, this is only using the noun and verb forms. If we insist that all of these buffalo come from Buffalo, New York, we get the outrageous 23-word sentence buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

[00:04:04]And well, you know where this is going, [music] right? Just as we can take this simple noun-verb-noun sentence and reorder it to create a noun phrase, we can reorder this 23-word behemoth and turn it into a noun phrase. And then, by using that as both the subject and the object, we end up with this truly absurd 47-word sentence. Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo.

[00:04:41]It's probably worth mentioning at this point that there's a name for this process. Linguists call it center embedding, and it can lead to some strange and incomprehensible sentences like the rat the cat the dog chased killed ate the malt. There's actually been some really interesting research about just how nested a sentence can get before the person you're talking to slaps you. Also, in case you're interested in hearing a musical version of center embedding, I've got you covered.

[00:05:04]Anyway, where was I? Oh, yeah, we were just getting to the place where I point out that this nesting process could technically go on forever. It's kind of funny because in the limiting case, where the [music] sentence is infinitely long, we never get past the subject of the sentence. Every time we seem to complete the subject, it just gets roped into a noun phrase of double the length.

[00:05:22]Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo. So, that's how we make an infinitely long, grammatically correct sentence from just one word.

[00:05:34]And what the heck, let's throw in some grammatically generated drums.

[00:05:48]As a postlude, I'm sure you're wondering, as any normal person would, are there any other words that could work just as well? Or is this kind of linguistic achievement only possible with the word buffalo? Well, let's review for a moment the resume of this incredible word. Buffalo is simultaneously a noun, the plural form of that same noun, an adjective, or technically a noun modifier, and a transitive verb. Are there any other words that fit the bill? Well, there are certainly a couple words that come close. For example, the word present is a noun, an adjective, and a transitive verb, if you're okay with shifting the emphasis [music] to the last syllable.

[00:06:24]So, we could perfectly well say, present presents present presents present present present presents. Meaning, presents that are here, which presents that are here introduce, introduce presents that are here. Not bad. I mean, we've all encountered that situation on Christmas. But, the sticking point, apart from the fact that inanimate objects are talking to each other in a highly convoluted manner, is that we have to pluralize presents to make the subject and verb agree. It's either presents present, or present presents, but not present present. The special superpower of the word buffalo is that it can pluralize without adding an S, meaning that subject and verb can agree while using the exact same word form.

[00:07:03]So, maybe we could go looking for other words like that. And actually, there are a number of animal words that work exactly the same way. Moose moose, sheep sheep, shrimp shrimp, fish fish. And actually, fish is an interesting one because it's also a transitive verb, which means that fish can fish fish.

[00:07:21]Ugh, but the adjective is fishy. So, the fish equivalent of the canonical buffalo sentence would have to be fishy fish fishy fish fish fish fishy fish. Dang, so close. Unless. Remember how we didn't actually need the adjective form to start nesting noun phrases? That means that this same diagram could be used with fish just as much as with buffalo, giving us the sentence fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish, which roughly translates to scaly swimmers that scaly swimmers try to catch that scaly swimmers that scaly swimmers try to catch try to catch try to catch scaly swimmers that scaly swimmers try to catch. And again, since we can keep on nesting the noun phrases as long as we want, we can generate an infinite fish sentence this way, too.

[00:08:08]Fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish [music] fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish But, you know what? I think this is starting to get a little confusing. We better stop there in the interest of clarity. And if you, in the interest of clarity, would like to show your friends how linguistically sophisticated you are, why not buy some of this enlightening merch? You can wrap the classic eight buffalo sentence, or you can buy one of these t-shirts showing you how to recursively nest either buffalo or fish. And hey, if you're into infinite recursion, I've got some other products you might want to check out, too. Whatever you buy helps out the channel, while at the same time making the world a little bit more inscrutable. Thanks for watching.

[00:09:04]Fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish fish.