I just wrote a comment on the main page that included two that’s in a row-“that that,” and it reminded me of a verbavore challenge to write a grammatically sound sentence with five “that’s” in a row.  Let’s see if any of you can do it!

I can do it, but I don’t want to solve this right away and spoil it for everybody else.  Here’s a link to my answer, so nobody else has to see it if they don’t want to.

Answer

That ‘that that’ that that guy used in his sentence is actually the correct way to say what he wanted to say!

I wrote it down then felt guilty for spilling it for everyone else so I used some white-out, but it’s there. If you want to see it then highlight and drag over it and it’ll show up against the dark background!

Mark-N-Jen - 26 August 2005 07:18 AM

I wrote it down then felt guilty for spilling it for everyone else.

Very good, now do six (yes, it is possible).

Okay, here goes:

I didn’t know that that “that that” that that CP fellow was talking about was going to start all this.

Highlight.

And just for fun:

Did you know that that ‘that that’ that that ‘that that’ guy was talking about would lead to 8 in a row?

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All very good.  The “that that that that that” that I was thinking about, however, went more like this:
The student asked the teacher about a “that” in a sentence he wrote, and the teacher told the student that that “that” that that student used was correct.
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I guess if I declared myself the “that that that that that” guy we could do Charybdis’s with 14!
i.e. “[color=white]Did you know that that

Yeah, as long as you allow quotations it gets ridiculous.

Charybdis - 26 August 2005 11:58 AM

Yeah, as long as you allow quotations it gets rediculous.

F’r'instance: -

That that “that that that that that that that [ x 1000] that that” that that “that that” was replaced with in MnJ’s original answer makes the whole thing ungrammatical should be obvious to everybody!

I was going to keep ramping up the “that"s (to the point of absurdity), but y’all beat me to it.

Not ungramatical, David B.  Just unrational.