The 'Buffalo' sentence really is grammatical
'Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo' is a valid English sentence -- a beloved linguistic brain-teaser.
Today's briefing: a few timeless things worth knowing about words, language, AI, and puzzles. (Archive edition.)
'Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo' is a valid English sentence -- a beloved linguistic brain-teaser.
It is the craft of writing clear, effective instructions for an AI model -- and it became common enough that major dictionaries now list it as a word.
Rearranging the letters of a word or name into a new one was a favorite pastime long before mobile word games.
From 'ketchup' to 'safari' to 'pajamas,' English has borrowed words from hundreds of languages around the globe.
Built on a 1979 US puzzle called Number Place, sudoku was popularized in Japan in the 1980s before sweeping the globe.
'Cleave' can mean to split apart or to cling together; such words are called contronyms, or 'Janus words.'