Test Sentences (Fink-Peterson Test Sentences)

Note: This page is part of the Test Sentence Archive.

Original creator: Alex Fink, with additional sentences by David J. Peterson
Original location: http://talideon.com/concultures/wiki/?doc=TestSentences
Last copy on Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20071117031157/http://talideon.com/concultures/wiki/?doc=TestSentences
Total number of sentences (counting all readings separately): 142
Words required: approximately 257 (see end of page)

Notes (from original page)

Some of these may not be distinct from each other when expressed in a language in the most natural manner (like 60a vs. 60b in English); furthermore, there may be no relatively direct translation which is grammatical. Parenthesized parts of sentences are not necessarily to be translated, but merely serve as clarification.

List of Sentences

[1] We are sitting in the night, and like the night, we are silent.
[2] I thought this darned thread was dead.
[3a] The clouds floated over the sea. (Two readings:)
- [a] The clouds floated across the sea (and made landfall).
- [b] The clouds floated above the sea, not making landfall, just staying above the sea.
[3b] The cow jumped over the moon.
[4a] John is taller than he (John) thinks.
[4b] John is taller than he (someone else) thinks.
[5a] They named their child Fafnir.
[5b] They named their child something strange.
[6] They swept the floor (such that the floor was) clean.
[7] I am standing between a cat and a rabbit.
[8a] I swim across the river.
[8b] I prefer to swim across the river.
[9] The man just died.
[10] The woman ran off long ago.
[11a] The man saw the animal and (the man) ran off.
[11b] The man saw the animal and (the animal) ran off.
[12] The woman died and (she) shot at the small game.
[13a] The man lives at that place.
[13b] That place is a living location (for the man).
[14] Give him his money back.
[15] How cold is it outside?
[16] The dog was sleeping until the cat woke him up.
[17] I haven't found my socks yet, but I will if I keep searching.
[18] These chocolates are for the girl who helped me with math.
[19] Your parents are brothers (of each other)!
[20] Would you like the black one or the white one?
[21a] The tank is full.
[21b] The tank filled.
[21c] John filled the tank.
[21d] The water filled the tank.
[22a] The man loves the woman.
[22b] The man loves his country.
[23] The man loves the woman and (he) has the woman.
[24a] I am breaking it.
[24b] I am going about breaking (things).
[25] The man is being looked at by the woman. (a passive sentence)
[26a] The man dropped the melon and (the melon) burst.
[26b] The man hit the wall and (the wall) shouted.
[27] The smaller boy bought the biggest dog.
[28] The horse bears a heavy load.
[29] I am not going to wed one of my daughters to such a daft boy.
[30] John threw the ball to Mary.
[31] He said that he (same referent) will come.
[32] This one (nearby) said that that one (far off) will come.
[33] I need some explanations.
[34] I'm not a linguist.
[35] Can you speak [language name]?
[36] I ceased to behave like my former self.
[37] Do what I ordered, you all!
[38] He was sleeping when I entered.
[39] This tree is not a tree.
[40] It's a grass, like the bamboo.
[41] They have green shutters.
[42a] I am looking at it.
[42b] Would that I look at it.
[43] I will lay waste the rebellious districts.
[44] Three birds are flying.
[45] [language name] is a simple language.
[46] There were many beautiful trees in the garden.
[48] My name is Nikhil.
[49] Where is the book?
[50a] You are coming with me.
[50b] Are you coming with me?
[51] What is the name of that city?
[52] The Quendi are those who form words with voices.
[53a] I am eating you.
[53b] I am eating (something).
[53c] (Something) is eating me.
[54a] I eat food.
[54b] I run.
[54c] I fall.
[54d] I sleep.
[55] I eat food at your home.
[56] Red is a color.
[57] We went to Disneyland yesterday.
[58] He's dead, Jim!
[59a] Elaine wants to marry (a specific person who is) a Norwegian.
[59b] Elaine wants to marry a Norwegian (some Norwegian or other).
[60a] I saw the food (and) the water.
[60b] I saw the blue water.
[61] I thought (wrongly, on an uncontrolled and not necessarily rational level) that I saw Jenny.
[62a] Robert cooked the rice.
[62b] Robert cooked (performed the action of cooking).
[62c] Cooked the rice (the rice cooked, was being cooked).
[62d] Cooked (an event of cooking took place).
[63a] The fire burns the wood.
[63b] The wood is burning.
[63c] The house is burning down.
[64a] I saw a horse from (my place at) the door.
[64b] I saw a horse (that was coming) from the door.
[65] If one is sick, it pays off to take medicine.
[66] John likes the baby.
[67] I can't recommend this book.
[68] The Mongols sacked Kiev.
[69] Three men longed to fabricate idols in honour of two goddesses. (Three readings:)
- [a] (3 men, 2 goddesses)
- [b] (3 men, 2 to 6 goddesses)
- [c] (3 to 6 men, 2 goddesses)
[70] She believes him to be good.
[71] She thinks he's good.
[72] She seems to be good. (It seems [that] she's good.)
[73] She hates for him to be good.
[74] She wants him alive. (Two readings:)
- [a] She wants him to be alive.
- [b] She wants him to be captured and brought to her alive.
[75] There seems to be a storm.
[76] For him to eat upsets her.
[77] I don't know whether I'll go.
[78] I saw a picture of (me/myself).
[79] The apples, having fallen from the tree, ripened.
[80] The dog (that was) with the man I saw was green.
[81] I heard the bird singing.
[82] Laura likes homework about as much as I do.
[83] The girl whom I thought liked homework about as much as I did actually didn't.
[84] They say everyone was born free.
[85] Steve kept his eyes closed.
[86] This bed has clearly been jumped on.
[87] She had suggested I take a walk in the park.
[88] The man who was attempted to be arrested escaped or The man whom (they) tried to arrest escaped. [In Kankonian this is Wiri az novosizen baizh rakharten: man that/who try+PASSIVE+PAST arrest escape+PAST.]
[89] John's playing the guitar at midnight bugs me.
[90] "Hey, Jim!", she said, tapping him on the shoulder.
[91] After the people had succumbed to the knock-out gas, our agents secured the area.
[92] Instead of you going to the store, let's have Barbara order it off the Net.
[93] "I quite agree with you," said the Duchess, "and the moral of that is – 'Be what you would seem to be' – or, if you'd like it put more simply – 'Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'" [Note by Pete Bleackley: The sentence is a quote from Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll, and the grammar is deliberately convoluted for humorous effect. The point of this test sentence is to see if a language can cope with deliberate absurdities of this nature.]
[94] The man who removes a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.
[95] David saw the boy to whom Susan gave an apple which she purchased at the store.
[96] I tried to find out where (or, for that matter, whether) the group was meeting.
[97] It is good that you remembered to turn off the stove, since otherwise the food would have been being cooked for several hours.
[98a] That someone could allow this to happen is despicable.
[98b] That that someone could allow this to happen is despicable is common sense.
[98c] That that that someone could allow this to happen is despicable is common sense is subject to debate.
[98d] That that that that someone could allow this to happen is despicable is common sense is subject to debate is simply absurd.
[99] This priceless artifact is not worth risking losing.
[100a] You must go. / You have to go.
[100b] You must not go.
[100c] You need not go. / You don't have to go.
[101] Were you seconding what I said or saying what you thought I didn't?
[102] I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard was not what I meant.
[103] How drunk/high do you have to be to be so confused as to momentarily believe that today is half a year away from when it actually is?
[104] If I say "you are a couple of anarchists wearing bidets as hats", how many anarchists are there?
[105] It's a good idea to try and be careful about not copying English's idiosyncracies.
[106] I want to become the person I would have become had I been born in [place].
[107] This is the man who put chocolate sprinkles on the ice cream he sold to the girl who was disabled after she broke her leg while falling down the well that provides our town's drinking water. / This is the man who put chocolate sprinkles on the ice cream, which he sold to the girl; she was disabled after falling into the well, which provides our town's drinking water, and breaking her leg.

Vocabulary

Approximately 257 words are required to produce these test sentences:

absurd, actually, agent, agree, alive, allow, anarchist (n), animal, appear, apple, area, arrest (v), artifact, attempt (v), baby, ball, bamboo, be sure about sth., be worth sth., bear (v), beautiful, become, bed (n), begin, behave, believe, bidet, big, bird, black, blue, book (n), born, boy, break (v), bring, brother, bug (v), burn, burst (v), buy (v), capture (v), careful, carry (v), cat, cease, child, chocolate, city, clean (adj), clearly, closed, cloud, cold, color (n), come, common sense, confused, cook (v), copy (v), country, couple (some), cow, daft, darned, daughter, dead, despicable, die, disabled, district, do, dog, door, drinking water, drop (v), drunk, duchess, eat, enter, escape (v), explanation, eyes (dual), fabricate, fall (v), fill (v), find out, fire (n), float (v), floor (n), fly (v), food, form (v), former, free (adj), full, game (animal), garden (n), girl, give, go, goddess, good, grass (n), green, group (n), guitar, half, happen, hat, hate (v), have, hear, heavy, help (v), high (intoxicated), hit (v), home, homework, honour (n), horse, hour, house (n), ice cream, idea, idiosyncracy, idol, imagine, jump (v), keep, knock-out gas, know, landfall, language, lay waste, leg, let, like (v and prep), linguist, live (v), living location, load (n), long (v), look (v), lose (v), love (v), man (n), marry, math, mean (v), medicine, meeting, melon, midnight, momentarily, money, moon, moral, mountain, name (v and n), need (v), net (Internet), night, order (v), parent, park (n), pay off, people, person, picture (n), place (n), play (v), prefer, priceless, provide, purchase (v), put, quite, rabbit, realize, rebellious, recommend, red (n), remember, remove, rice, ripened, risk (v), river, run (v), sack (v), say, sea, search (v), second (v), secure (v), see, seem, self (n), sell, several, shoot, shoulder (n), shout (v), shutter (n), sick, silent, simple, simply, sing, sit, sleep (v), small, socks (dual), speak, sprinkle, stand (v), stay, stone, store (n), storm (n), stove, strange, subject to debate, succumb, suggest, sweep, swim (v), take (v), tall, tank (container), tap (v), think, thread (online conversation), throw (v), today, town, tree, try, turn off, understand, upset, voice, wake up, walk (n), wall (n), want (v), water (n), wear (v), wed (v), well (n), white, woman, wood, word, year, yesterday

In addition to that, several "structure words" (pronouns, prepositions etc. – or whatever the equivalent in your language is) and some proper nouns are needed.

The exact number of words will depend on the lexicon of your conlang, assuming it is not just a relex of English.