Difficult Words Practice Sentences

[kiavonne]

Here are the difficult words practice sentences that were recently submitted during our Presidents’ Day challenge. They are here for everyone to use and enjoy, and I hope you will visit often, discuss your challenges, and contribute even more practice sentences for everyone to use.

 

 

Disturbed by his colleagues' lack of enthusiasm, again and again the Egyptian astrophysicist visiting the observatory in Mississippi analyzed the multi-part transcription of telecommunications from the Galileo probe for the minimum of errors and maximum of syzygy, murmuring nervously over the unerring interference from the unnerving rumble of the mummers' minivan in the nunnery next door as a neighboring Afghani analyst coughed lightly while weighing his thoughts over straightening a spaghetti-code-laden program designed for intergalactic exploration blighted by oversight before getting his prized midnight snack of yoghurt and doughnuts from the equipment room icebox.

 

-original 2008 practice sentence

 

 

As the elusive "Egyptian Gypsy" ascended the platform of the guillotine, he remembered the merry misadventures that led him there — how he 'accidentally' grabbed the grubby bejeweled giraffe in Tennessee that sparked the kerfuffle in Clackmannanshire with the flabbergasted sheriff who followed him through Mississippi where he used the maximum amount of savvy necessary to beguile the bookkeeper in Buffalo to dodge the cops following him until he could get to Cairo, which was filled with so many possibilities, so much potential … so many purses to be successfully pilfered again and again until he was chased to Tiananmen where he 'borrowed' the baggage, but never pulled the trigger as he was accused, which naturally forced him to conceive a difficult plan to bluff the gruff chauffeur in D.C. — but it turned into a big squabble with the ruffian from the Mediterranean that, upon assessment, probably gave the officials the equipment needed to send the one underhanded telecommunication that ended the affair and sent this braggart anxiously wobbling up to face his final comeuppance.

 

-the flexistentialist

 

 

Anxious to chauffeur his beekeeper to Clackmannanshire, the benign buffalo abbot accidentally pressed the big “accelerate” button inside his Diamine-Mediterranean-Blue-coloured rosewood telecommunication daffodil, and disappointed Galileo as he’d forgotten the grubby kitten somewhere back in the Mediterranean or in Mississippi and he was indubitably necessary for maximum maneuverability of the Diamine-Mediterranean-Blue-coloured rosewood telecommunication daffodil on the journey to Tennessee through Tiananmen in order to deliver the tinkering toddler to the subterfuge woman who lives in the undercooked vacuum of Tennessee, and in order to potentially and possibly get there one must remember that one must travel through the riffraff of Tiananmen successfully after deciding unanimously that the sheriff’s underwear belongs in the subgroup of paparazzi-proof undergarments.

 

-Apprenti

 

 

The phyllophagous abbot, who was from Clackmannanshire, had a sense of aestheticism that was beyond all conceivableness and caused great consternation for everyone around him; his correspondence consisted solely of Gothic majuscules, and often read as if it had been dictated by his foul mouthed parakeet, a heaped up pile of gobbledygook that sought to puff up his own misbegotten sense of plenipotentiary, as if he had quaffed his own kool-aid, and nearly always had an affectation of lugubriousness; in the end he got his comeuppance when the Superior General read his letter condemning the eating of baguettes when in syzygy with Mars and Venus, and suggesting a diet mainly of daffodils and rosewood, and he was summarily sacked.

 

-MINItron

 

 

Affectionately dubbed a flibbertigibbet, Pippin the hobbit was a braggart and bookkeeper whose benign aestheticism triggered the maintenance of well-equipped eyebrows that unanimously provoked giggles from toddlers and starred in his absurd narratives: Galileo, the left brow who was curved like a longbow for maximum manoeuverability, accidentally slipped a phyllophagous giraffe through a guillotine, which prompted a kerfuffle because the sheriff was commissioned to tinker with telecommunications efforts to showcase subterfuge by the paparazzi, and Don Quixote, Galileo's nervous right twin, who genuinely flabbergasted Afghani women in muumuus and underdressed Egyptian chauffeurs wearing patterned skivvies by anxiously babbling about bugbears from Mississippi indubitably hiding in travelers' purses and baggage.

 

-bokchoy

 

 

It all began innocently enough - our commission: to guarantee that no subterfuge was being perpetrated in the accounting of The Rutabaga Club, a music showcase on Tennessee Avenue in Washington D.C., which featured a kaleidoscopic repertoire including snippets from DonJuan, Don Quixote, and The Hallelujah Chorus; but as our chauffeur - an affectionate Clackmannanshire man possessed of a keen aestheticism - attempted to maneuver the rosewood appointed limousine (borrowed from Rick Derringer) through the assembled flabbergasted paparazzi - there arose such a kerfuffle that, were it not for the benign ministrations of a baguette equipped sheriff from Mississippi who had inadvertently stumbled upon the scene, the success of the entire affair may have been compromised…though luckily, leaving the potential difficulty behind and arriving unruffled at our destination, we happened upon a lugubrious gypsy woman from the maintenance staff with exaggerated fluffy eyebrows, who agreed to escort us through the underbelly of the building to the office of the anxious bookkeeper - our quarry - whose parakeet (a beguiling flibbertigibbet) recited rhetorical gobbledygook to the assorted riffraff assembled there while we gained access to the books; whereupon by unanimous decree, they were acknowledged to be free of tinkering, indubitably genuine, unadulterated and accurately rendered, bringing our difficult assessment to a conclusion.

 

-DanF

 

 

Sunshine comes through the window while I'm drinking my morning coffee along with my kitten on my lap, trying to remember the beautiful years spent in Clackmannanshire when my father was working as a navvy, the difficulties, the disappointment at the end of every month, saying hallelujah for the warm baguette on the dining table, the kaleidoscope I could never get, the lovely beekeeper in our neighbor, all the wonderful memories and the effort grabs my heart that how successfully we could break through and live a life with paparazzis watching, surrounded by our family and rosewood furniture, the antique desk where I'm writing my diary, sending my acknowledgements to my father, remembering him while I'm putting down some words with some Iroshizuku ink on Tomoe River paper, trying to showcase some kind of penmanship.

 

-attika89

 

 

Disengaging from the herd, a subgroup of phyllophagous giraffes gazed anxiously at the guillotine, which had appeared inexplicably in the underbrush between the parakeet infested baobab tree and the squabbling hippopotami (ruffians of the Serengeti), who, having just successfully scattered the belligerent buffalo through a vast expanse of daffodils and poppies, now shuffled off to celebrate by quaffing some liquid refreshment from the babbling brook below, when to their amazement there suddenly appeared a prodigious pod of petulant porpoises - gypsies from the Mediterranean - waylaid by an unyielding ebb tide which propelled them irrepressibly toward the African continent, depositing them in the estuary, through which, swimming against the undercurrent, they ascended riffles and all manner of hazards and obstructions, ineluctably arriving at the oxbow near the baobab, where having only minimal depth in which to maneuver, the vacuum created by tails thrashing in the shallows stirred up detritus of the stream bed, until the previously clear water more resembled coffee - effectively causing the disappointed hippos, keen on avoiding the possibility of amoebic dysentery (and it's accompanying diarrhea) to unanimously abandon plans of quenching thirst, in favor of visiting the gullible giraffes, and terrorizing them with unabridged horror stories of the French Revolution.

 

-DanF

 

 

“Save the Giraffes” Campaign

 

The bookkeeper of Clackmannanshire and his flabbergasted giraffe, who, by the way, would like to guarantee his safety from the guillotine, are undertaking the necessary telecommunications in order to possibly save the giraffe from the potential of having his indubitably long neck removed for the sake of aestheticism and to avoid the difficult situation of diarrhea brought on by the stress of this effort in subterfuge and, last but not least, to protect the flabbergasted giraffes against the indubitably displeasing kerfuffle of the guillotine.

 

Yours indubitably, Lord Vacuum-Waffle III xxx

 

-Apprenti

 

 

Sipping at his coffee, the bookkeeper from Clackmannanshire adopted an air of lugubriousness and told his flabbergasted audience an abridged account of his life, how a babbling porpoise befriended his well-maintained dinghy until the rosewood vessel sank in the Mediterranean, how the shipwreck beggared him, how he squatted in the mezzanine of the Burj Khalifa and became a capable squeegee man, how he necessarily subsisted on pippin apples, how an Egyptian vexillologist gave him baguettes and assisted him to become a beekeeper, how his field of daffodils and poppies was possibly eaten by phyllophagus buffaloes and his honey quaffed by parakeets, and flummoxed and disappointed at these events, he turned to raising giraffes, only for an abbot's assessment of his giraffe's indubitably long neck and suggestion to shorten it via guillotine to offend his sense of aestheticism beyond all conceivableness.

 

-bokchoy

 

 

The indubitable duty of the doubtful digger was to dredge the ditch of the dowager who begrudged begging the bellowing abbot for the bulging begonias that bloom in that beguiling bog, but before Daryl, our derelict digger could pilfer the potential posies, the abbot's pet pygmy giraffe, Peter, pounced like a gazelle lightly leaping into the kerfuffle, frightening the flabbergasted would-be florist into fleeing in a shuffling flight from the flowery ditch where Peter, himself, gruffly grabbed the growing garden in a gulp and galloped off to the grubby gypsy garrison guarding the grounds of the governor, where he gave the governor's grand-daughter, Greta, the gorgeous begonias, causing the maiden to remark that she remembered that that mistreated minion couldn't have committed the multiple murders on Monday — the maximum he could be accused of was the marginally malicious manhandling of some marigolds — which swayed her gallant governor grandfather, who after assessing the affair acquiesced to an acquittal.

 

-the flexistentialist

 

 

Abbott and Costello were jovial fellows who were always good for a laugh,

when one night on a lark, they went out after dark, accidentally meeting a giraffe
who said to the pair, "But are you aware the guillotine will soon be my fate,
for a lugubrious gypsy, feeling slightly tipsy was waiting anxiously outside of my gate
where there was quite the kerfuffle, I was lost in the shuffle, but I saw the kitten pull a Derringer from his coat,
how he pulled the trigger, I couldn't figure, but, oh, how that braggart could gloat —
and now I have the blame and a ruffian's shame for a multiple murder and such gobbledygook
but with such genuine friends who'll ensure a benign end, can keep the sheriff from throwing the book" —

which caused the duo to say in a difficult way that this story would make their hearts burst,
but they maneuvered to the right and buggered off out of sight, leaving an autographed copy of “Who's On First.”

 

-the flexistentialist

 

 

When the avionics technician arrived to repair the telecommunication systems the Apache Longbow is equipped with, a braggart pilot, claiming to be from Clackmannanshire, reminisced nonstop about flying in airshows in Egypt and the Mediterranean, performing dangerous manoeuvers, and how he only logs his hours with a handmade rosewood fountain pen with Pilot Iroshizuku Murasaki-Shikibu, soley for the purpose of showcasing his style.

 

-kingcobradude

 

 

The Donaudampfschifffahrtsgesellschaftskapitän was flabbergasted when his Kentucky coffee and rosewood fountain pen, inked with Private Reserve in, failed to successfully write on parchment he specially imported from the village of Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwlllantysiliogogogoch.

 

-kingcobradude

 

 

While the practice sentence's function is the practice, the main part is the joy of writing, the difficult combinations, challenging connections, and the result is not only for pure aestheticism, nor just for the maintenance of motions from the collaboration of brain, muscles and a fountain pen, its also an assessment for ourselves about which way we should go, or that if we are on the right track for a dizzyingly beautiful experience, a solemn idiosyncrasy when the rhythm comes naturally, and when you can reach a state of mind where everything flows almost effortlessly, and in the end the most flabbergasted will be YOU yourself gazing at your penmanship what shows the joy what worth showscasing!

 

-attika89

 

 

A warm Mississippi zephyr greeted Dr Kenneth Hoffman as he disembarked the aircraft at Biloxi, zigzagging across the tarmac to avoid the multitudinous puddles, and eventually locating his host and mentor : Dr Geoffry Bekkatz-Quinn, head of Ornithology at William & Mary College in Virginia, and author of the New York Times bestseller: Easy Bird Identification, who quizzically raised an eyebrow upon noticing the whippoorwill image affixed to Hoffman's baggage as it arrived on the carrousel.

 

-DanF

 

 

Undeterred by obvious political and philosophical differences, affable Senators Woodrow Ibbotson of North Dakota, and Bridgette Quiggly of Kentucky accelerated the rollout of their frequently ballyhooed program - to guarantee that every anxious farmer from Mississippi to Tennessee will have maximal opportunity to successfully purvey their newly endangered commodity - and were now zigzagging across the nation on behalf of the American Federation of Rutabaga Growers, promulgating plans to permanently annihilate the plague of pernicious and appallingly plentiful Mammoth Grasshopper, a gigantic Hexapod that hitchhiked here from Egypt, and have since been devastating the vulnerable vegetable throughout the southland.

 

-DanF

 

 

While working in Egypt as a paparazzi I accidently flabbergasted my chauffeur again with my bugaboo while eating my baguette and coffee. I was anxious to commission a bookkeeper for my difficult effort in Clackmannanshire where I successfully equipped a genuine giraffe to access the sheriff to trigger maintenance on the telecommunication. I was disappointed that he was not as fluffy as a kitten. The conceivableness of the affair disappointed Don Juan and the beggar.

 

-Adalwolfa13

 

[smk]

Wow - these can keep a penman busy for some time.

 

I have added a link to this thread in the pinned handwriting aids thread (here) so we can benefit from this effort for a long time to come.

 

Kimy - many thanks your generosity.

 

S.

[MINItron]

http://i1199.photobucket.com/albums/aa470/S_McT/Mobile%20Uploads/2014-02/DB0996B2-3562-4726-84FB-D0448E3F45B4_zpsghdcgtrv.jpg

 

My first try at the winners sentence in secretary hand. I have a thing for paleography.

[kiavonne]

Wow - these can keep a penman busy for some time.

 

I have added a link to this thread in the pinned handwriting aids thread (here) so we can benefit from this effort for a long time to come.

 

Kimy - many thanks your generosity.

 

S.

 

 

Thank you, smk!!

[kiavonne]

My first try at the winners sentence in secretary hand. I have a thing for paleography.

 

That's pretty cool, and something I don't know how to do.

[MINItron]

That's pretty cool, and something I don't know how to do.

Like any writing it takes practice. Some things are much easier to write. The word "the" becomes "þe". Like even the scribes of the time I don't always remember or choose to use the various contractions and shortcuts.

[bokchoy]

Secretary hand looks fascinating. I thought it was another language for a few seconds, then it miraculously transformed into English.

[Crackednib]

Mint,

Wonderful! I also am interested in paleography but am certainly not an expert. My efforts fail in the use, or lack of use, of contractions, you have schooled me well!

 

If I may make one observation, it is regarding the "long S" and it's use. As I understand it the "rules" or rather fashion, varied over time, but here is my understanding of it's use, it (long S) was used as at the beginning of a word or syllable, in the double s (ss) form found in words like Mississippi, the first s would be the long s followed be a short s. Using two long s letter forms together as you have done was sometimes used to denote a capital S. To muddy up things further, capital letters were sometimes used at the begining of sentances, word or even syllables and sometime not. If you have any sources of information that can provide help for me in this study, I would truly be grateful. All this gets so complicated, by regional and national styles, and fashions of the time.

 

This is a fun test http://academic.reed.edu/handwriting/

 

Thank you for sharing your efforts, I shall now ink up my pen and attempt some of these wonderful stories

Edited February 20, 2014 by Crackednib

[85AKbN]

[MINItron]

Cracked,

 

Everything was highly variable in those days. The same word might be spelled differently in the same document. A word contacted in one place but not another. The long s versus short s seems to be highly variable the later the document originally any s that wasn't at the end of a word was long. The rules in other languages were more complex. I personally favor a double long s over a long/short combo as it is more legible, and quicker to write. The only letter that is doubled to form a majuscule is the ff as far as I have read. Of course, I have not looked into early American secretary hand so there may be some differences there.

 

Rycote.bodleian.ox.ac.uk and nationalarchives.gov.uk are excellent sources for Tudor handwriting. Another good place to look is the writings of Shakespeare. There are good facsimiles of early printings of his sonnets available. They don't show the handwriting of the time, but the do show the spelling and vocabulary very well.

[Crackednib]

Thanks for your informitive responce. The more I learn, the less I know

[dcwaites]

I think we need to look at kiavonne's original attempt at the first sentence --

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/index.php/topic/54127-difficult-words/?do=findComment&comment=560454

 

And, by the way, I take the blame for contributing the word 'syzygy'...

[kiavonne]

Low blow, I could write half legibly back then!

 

And 'syzygy' is still the devil to write!

 

Thanks, dcwaites!

 

(hmmm, I guess I fulfilled my own prophecy from the next post)

Edited February 21, 2014 by kiavonne

[bokchoy]

My previous practice sentences were designed for continuous looped cursive. So, I'd like to try something different and target styles using more print-like letter forms.

 

For distinguishing r and v:

Displaying great perseverance, the marvel(l)ous driver unnerved whirling dervishes, observant surveyors, raving fans and nervous workers at the harvest festival race by swerving around the curved track and manoeuvring/maneuvering through sharp corners to a well-deserved victory.

 

The result of failure:

Displaying gveat pevsevevance, the mavvel(l)ous dvivev unnevved whivling devvishes, obsevvant suvveyovs, vaving fans and nevvous wovkevs at the havvest festival vace by swevving avound the cuvved tvack and manoeuvving/maneuveving thvough shavp covnevs to a well-desevved victovy.

 

Sorry, no handwritten sample (will try to add one later). This is one of my problems when writing at top speed

 

I have a u/v sentence in the planning stages. Other possibilities like rn/m and a/u could work as well...

Edited February 22, 2014 by bokchoy

[bokchoy]

For distinguishing u/v:

The devious, suave and pervasively influential Medi(a)eval antiques collector played vicious vuvuzela and ukulele songs at the venue, surveyed an recurve bow and quiver, and voluntarily divulged their values to an envious competitor with very mauve hair and unusually large uvula.

 

If v looks like u:

The deuious, suaue and peruasiuely influential Medi(a)eual antiques collector played uicious uuuuzela and ukulele songs at the uenue, surueyed an recurue bow and quiuer, and uoluntarily diuulged their ualues to an enuious competitor with uery mauue hair and unusually large uuula.

 

If u looks like v:

The deviovs, svave and pervasively inflvential Medi(a)eval antiqves collector played viciovs vvvvzela and vkvlele songs at the venve, svrveyed an recvrve bow and qviver, and volvntarily divvlged their valves to an enviovs competitor with very mavve hair and vnvsvally large vvvla.

[kiavonne]

I like your take on creating the difficult combinations. These type of comparisons really come out when writing the sentences and can really show where improvement is needed. Thanks, Bokchoy!

[MINItron]

What I find funny is that some of the passages in Elizabethan English that I have read while studying Shakespeare actually have the "v" and "u" completely reversed from modern spelling. For example, aboue instead of above, vnder instead of under. They are not likely transcription errors when the play was originally set in type (400 years ago) since the "u" and "v" in secretary hand look very, very different. Of course, spelling was still not standardized at that point.

Edited February 27, 2014 by MINItron

[the flexistentialist]

For more odd letter combinations, I like to use the lyrics from Danny Kaye's Tschaikowsky and other Russians. It makes for a good practice session. There's a certain relief when you get to the last line. (we all have undergone enough)

 

 

 

Without the least excuse
Or the slightest provocation,
May I fondly introduce,
For your mental delectation,
The names that always give me a concussion,
The names of those composers known as Russian.

There's Malichevsky, Rubinstein, Arensky, and Tschaikowsky,
Sapelnikoff, Dimitrieff, Tscherepnin, Kryjanowsky,
Godowsky, Arteiboucheff, Moniuszko, Akimenko,
Solovieff, Prokofieff, Tiomkin, Korestchenko.

There's Glinka, Winkler, Bortniansky, Rebikoff, Ilyinsky,
There's Medtner, Balakireff, Zolotareff, and Kvoschinsky.
And Sokoloff and Kopyloff, Dukelsky, and Klenowsky,
And Shostakovitsch, Borodine, Glière, and Nowakofski.

There's Liadoff and Karganoff, Markievitch, Pantschenko
And Dargomyzski, Stcherbatcheff, Scriabine, Vassilenko,
Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakoff, Mussorgsky, and Gretchaninoff
And Glazounoff and Caesar Cui, Kalinikoff, Rachmaninoff,

Stravinsky and Gretchnaninoff,
Rumshinsky and Rachmaninoff,
I really have to stop, the subject has been dwelt upon enough!

He'd better stop because we feel we all have undergone enough!

 

 

 

 

I also use the lyrics to his song Tongue Twisters when I'm practicing specific letters...

But, then again, I find inspiration in rather odd corners of the world.

 

Thanks,

The flexistentialist

 

 

[MINItron]

I love the Russian names lyrics. I wrote it out last night using three different pens, and hands, but didn't get a chance to take a picture. I like things like that because they make you take your time to think about what you are writing. It's the same reason why I like to copy from the early printings of Shakespeare or H.C. Andersen. If I am writing in Modern English or Danish I don't have to really think about the words, but Elizabethan English or 19th century Danish force me to slow down, and examine the words letter for letter. It also is a great study in how our languages have developed.

[AnneHW]

I can't believe I found this site! It's exactly what I've been looking for! I love writing and am always wanting to improve my penmanship. I took a class in calligraphy years ago (over 20) and it was a favorite. I have decent handwriting, but I'm never satisfied. I'm also artistic so I love playing with different ways to form letters and recently I decided to try fountain pens. I'm not a collector and I'm only interested in comfort and end results. Right now I have a Lamy Safari with an italic nib that I like. I also got one with a fine point nib that I'm not happy with because it's so hard for me to control. I also have a Pilot Metropolitan with a medium nib (it's similar to the Safari fine nib) and I love how smoothly it writes. I don't think it's as easy for me to control as the italic nib, but I still enjoy it. It's very hard for me to combine Gs and Zs and Ys. My niece's name is Lizzy and that's really a tough one!