Here is an example of the complexity of English. Professor Ernest Brennecke of Columbia is credited with inventing a sentence that can be made to have 8 different meanings by placing ONE WORD in all possible positions in the sentence: "I hit him in the eye yesterday." The word is "ONLY".
The Message: ● ONLY I hit him in the eye yesterday. (No one else did.) ● I ONLY hit him in the eye yesterday. (Did not slap him.) ● I hit ONLY him in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit others.) ● I hit him ONLY in the eye yesterday. (I did not hit outside the eye.) ● I hit him in ONLY the eye yesterday. (Not other organs.) ● I hit him in the ONLY eye yesterday. (He doesn't have another eye..) ● I hit him in the eye ONLY yesterday. (Not today.) ● I hit him in the eye yesterday ONLY. (Did not wait for today.) This is the beauty and complexity of the English language.
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