Tuesday, September 25, 2012

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo



So can the Portuguese correspondent of Buffalo - Búfalo - also be used on its own to form a sentence? The answer is no; but almost since in Portuguese Búfalo refers to the animal, and that same animal's hide. So (então) you can say (você pode dizer) ♠ Eu comprei búfalo de búfalo (I purchased a buffalo's buffalo hide). Ok, this sounds stupid: I suppose one could just say Comprei couro de búfalo and this would make the meaning clear without having to use the word búfalo twice. The thing is that the question posed in the post is not what is the most feasible way of communicating that you purchased buffalo hide - in Portuguese - it is can you use the word búfalo twice, each with a distict meaning, to create a sentence? Ok, that isn't really the question as what I actually asked was if you can use these words, on their own, to create a sentence. And the answer continues to be no; but had I focused on that then a transition would not have been possible and the post would have died.  And I just couldn't  kill a post that I know you would grow to love, not regretting for a moment having read to completion.  

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