The power of emphasis in language: “I didn’t say you stole my money”

I liked this:

This sentence is interesting in that if you say the sentence seven times, each time placing the emphasis on a different word, the meaning of the sentence shifts.

Try it…

  1. I Didn’t Say You Stole My Money.
  2. I Didn’t Say You Stole My Money.
  3. I Didn’t Say You Stole My Money.
  4. I Didn’t Say You Stole My Money.
  5. I Didn’t Say You Stole My Money.
  6. I Didn’t Say You Stole My Money.
  7. I Didn’t Say You Stole My Money.

My thanks to Schwern at geek2geek for the example, written about here.

9 thoughts on “The power of emphasis in language: “I didn’t say you stole my money””

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  4. He he. The Goodies thing works by removing words from the sentence, IIRC.

    “Father Christmas do!”

    Thanks for the memory, PM Harris :-) Those were the days – you wouldn’t get away with it now.

  5. Too true, and a typical example of how using email as the typical tool for most or all of one’s work interactions can be dangerous.
    Just change the sentence above to “I didn’t say you missed the project deadline”, imagine it in an email chain forwarded around and consider all the possible permutations of misunderstandings and problems hindering the creation of good working relationships.

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