Shortest comprehensive sentence in English

Question

What is the shortest comprehensive sentence in English?

Voting to close on the grounds this is not a constructive question. A sentence could be, for example, an answer to someone asking "What's the first [or n'th] letter of the alphabet?" — FumbleFingers, Jul 17 '11 at 13:32
@FumbleFingers Well true in an orthographic sense, but not in terms of grammar, where we often distinguish fragments from sentences. A one-word reply such as "cheese" or "two" would normally thus be considered a fragment, not a sentence :) — Araucaria - Him, Jul 02 '15 at 14:19
I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because it is not constructive. — Edwin Ashworth, Jul 02 '15 at 14:40
Implied subjects, however obvious the context might make them are not a component of the sentence, therefore rendering the sentence incomplete for lack of a subject. Context might make the complete thought obvious and at times, getting the gist of your thought across in a timely manner is preferable to absolute clarity, hence the "imperative". However the purpose of a "complete sentence" as it is usually meant, is that it linguistically conveys an entire thought without ambiguity and that is something imperative sentences do not do by themselves. How would someone measure context anyway? — Tonepoet, Jul 02 '15 at 16:27
@Tonepoet one could argue language can never convey an entire thought without ambiguity. I'd say a sentence is complete when it is possible to understand. — jiggunjer, Dec 21 '16 at 07:56

score 47 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 07 '10 at 14:04

47

"Go."

The understood subject is "You". "[You] go" makes sense to me.

answered Aug 07 '10 at 14:04

crenshaw-dev

582

6

"Go" (imperative) is in fact the more common form than "You go", so it makes even more sense than "You go". – ShreevatsaR Aug 07 '10 at 16:55
2

@ShreevatsaR: "You" is the understood subject of imperatives. – moioci Aug 09 '10 at 14:48
1

@moioci: Yes, I know. I was just pointing out that in actual usage, it's more usual to actually drop the subject "You", and more common forms are more likely to be understood. – ShreevatsaR Aug 09 '10 at 20:23
Verbose: A: "Who will be our leader?" B: "I." – Greybeard Jan 19 '23 at 22:04

score 35 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 08 '10 at 00:14

35

One could argue that in certain contexts, the single letter "I" is a sentence (depending on your definition of a sentence):

"Who is it?"

"I"

This (one letter) is the shortest possible, unless you count the "empty utterance". ;-)

answered Aug 08 '10 at 00:14

ShreevatsaR

27,572

4

Shouldn't it be "Me."? Short for "It is me." – Picturepocket Sep 14 '10 at 18:04
11

You could also say "I" if someone asks, "what is the ninth letter of the alphabet?" – Kosmonaut Sep 14 '10 at 19:20
14

@Picturepocket: No, because it's actually short for "It is I." A predicate nominative is grammatically supposed to be the subjective form of the pronoun (e.g. "I", "he") as opposed to the objective form ("me", "him"), despite the fact that casual English often uses the latter. – Maulrus Sep 14 '10 at 19:45
Also a shorter form of "I am", where "am" is understood in response to a question. – tsilb Aug 09 '11 at 16:35
@Picturepocket, one way to check is determine which is correct in a group, and vice versa. So "It is Joe and I" is the correct form, therefore "It is I" is correct. No, as correct as it sounds, you don't say "It is Joe and me". – Arlen Beiler Aug 09 '12 at 23:22
Is "I" a valid written English sentence without punctuation? – Victor Stoddard May 07 '19 at 22:09
Incorrect due to lack of a period. – B. Findlay Dec 15 '20 at 22:00

score 18 · Answer 3 · edited Apr 14 '12 at 17:05

18

It is said both the longest and the shortest sentence comes from the wedding ceremony:

I do.

edited Apr 14 '12 at 17:05

Paola

3,129

answered Dec 10 '10 at 16:20

3

This is a joke answer. – tmj Apr 16 '19 at 13:10

score 14 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 07 '10 at 17:48

14

"Be!"

The verb "to be" in the imperative mood. Though it's the same number of letters as "Go!", I'd say it wins as it comes first alphabetically. ;)

answered Aug 07 '10 at 17:48

Charlie

6,077

4

Plus it evokes somewhat philosophical associations. ;-) – ShreevatsaR Aug 07 '10 at 18:19
1

I'm feeling existentially angsty. – Charlie Aug 07 '10 at 18:26
12

How do you disobey this one? – Tim Lymington Jun 18 '11 at 20:55

score 14 · Answer 5 · answered Aug 07 '10 at 23:37

14

"No!" works perfectly, in my opinion.

answered Aug 07 '10 at 23:37

kitukwfyer

3,753

It is a response to another sentence. – Arlen Beiler Aug 20 '10 at 18:50
5

Not necessarily. What if you see a toddler running towards an open fire (or something really dangerous at any rate)? – kitukwfyer Aug 20 '10 at 19:09
It depends on what one considers a complete sentence. – Kosmonaut Sep 14 '10 at 19:30
2

Just because it expresses a complete thought doesn't necessarily make it a sentence. – eds Sep 14 '10 at 19:31
6

This one isn't very short if Darth Vader just found out about Padme... – Ghotir Jun 15 '16 at 15:41

score 14 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 10 '10 at 09:09

14

This.

That is the shortest, in number of words, complete English sentence that directly answers your question.

answered Dec 10 '10 at 09:09

RedGrittyBrick

10,147
32
46

3

How utterly profound! – Arlen Beiler Aug 09 '12 at 23:18
1

This is by far the best answer, especially when the number of one-syllable, one-word answers keeps growing. – H Stephen Straight May 06 '15 at 03:47

score 9 · Answer 7 · edited Aug 20 '12 at 05:10

9

I don't know if it even qualifies in this context, but according to the story, an author (variously Oscar Wilde or Victor Hugo), wondering how his new book was selling, sent a single-character telegram to his publisher:

?

The reply was

!

that is, well.

edited Aug 20 '12 at 05:10

Mechanical snail

1,954

answered Jul 17 '11 at 12:04

pavium

3,344

2

Very famous story, about Oscar Wilde. – The Raven Jul 17 '11 at 13:59
3

@TheRaven: It's apocryphal. You here it just as often about Victor Hugo, and there's equal evidence to support either version -- none at all. – David Schwartz Jun 09 '12 at 09:39
I've heard it about Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother, season 4 epsiode 1) – Luke Mar 19 '13 at 05:15

score 7 · Answer 8 · edited Jun 18 '12 at 03:36

7

The shortest sentence in the entire English Language, is the reply:

I.

It is a reply to the question: "Who is it?" Reply: "I."

That's shorter than "Go!"

edited Jun 18 '12 at 03:36

answered May 23 '11 at 06:15

Thursagen

41,919

score 6 · Answer 9 · answered Aug 07 '10 at 13:18

6

I would vote for "I am."

answered Aug 07 '10 at 13:18

Edward Tanguay

14,007

3

This was actually my first thought, but then I kept thinking. I still like it, though. :) – kitukwfyer Aug 07 '10 at 23:37

score 4 · Answer 10 · answered Nov 27 '14 at 10:31

4

"I sentence you to time already served. You are free to go."

answered Nov 27 '14 at 10:31

chiastic-security

3,091

score 3 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 27 '11 at 09:56

3

"O!"

As a variant of the exclamation "Oh!", an interjection of fear, surprise, admiration, etc.

answered Oct 27 '11 at 09:56

Hugo

67,535

score 2 · Answer 12 · edited Aug 20 '12 at 05:11

2

?

Even better than that, contemplate (the pithy, wholly implied) section 7.1 of Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (as translated from the original German):

edited Aug 20 '12 at 05:11

Mechanical snail

1,954

answered Aug 09 '11 at 21:17

whuber

451
4
8

score 1 · Answer 13 · answered May 23 '11 at 08:20

1

Since you already have many sweet, and short, answers I can only speculate on your intentions and provide, possibly, interesting link to one word sentences.

answered May 23 '11 at 08:20

Unreason

12,446

score 1 · Answer 14 · answered Aug 08 '10 at 02:32

1

It obviously can't be less than three letters (**.) and still be a complete thought.

Go.
Hi!
Ho! (same as "Hi")

This doesn't include responses since they require other sentences.

answered Aug 08 '10 at 02:32

Arlen Beiler

2,047

7

And if we are talking about the shortest spoken complete sentence, then something like Cut. could be the shortest, because [kʊt] just has a single lax vowel and two stops, while "go" [goʊ], "hi" [haɪ], and "ho" [hoʊ] are all diphthongs, which makes them take a fraction of a second longer to say :) – Kosmonaut Sep 14 '10 at 19:29
3

A period is not a letter, it is a punctuation mark. – Oldcat Mar 01 '14 at 01:33

score 0 · Answer 15 · edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

0

Eh?

Used to represent a sound made in speech, especially one used to express enquiry, surprise, or to elicit agreement

[ODO]

edited Jun 15 '20 at 07:40

Community

1

answered Nov 27 '14 at 10:42

Ste

14,234

Araucaria - Him · Answer 16 · 2015-07-04T06:25:26.927

It depends on how you define sentence and then how you define shortest. The answer does not appear to be Go, though (although that's quite a good shot at an answer).

The question uses the phrase complete sentence from which we can probably assume that the Original Poster is referring to a fully grammatical utterance headed by a finite verb.

With regards to shortest, there are at least two ways we could measure this. We could do it orthographically, in which case the sentence with the fewest letters would probably be the imperative of the verb 'X' (pronounced /eks/). Although usually used transitively, as in the Mark Twain quote:

'I shell have to x this ere paragrab,' said he to himself, as he read it over.'

... it could easily be used intransitively too:

A. What shall I do now?
B. X! [meaning "start crossing out"]

However, although 'X' contains only one orthographic symbol, in terms of sound it consists of three segments: /eks/. So, if by shortest sentence, we mean shortest in terms of segments, then this word wouldn't do. The sentence Go has one consonant sound plus a diphthong - /gəʊ/ in Southern standard British English and /goʊ/ in General American. We could regard this as having either two or three segments. However, it is plainly obvious that this could be shorter. The reason is we also have a verb owe which has exactly the same sound without the /g/, namely /əʊ/ or /oʊ/. However, it is quite hard to use this verb without a following complement, and so an imperative sentence might be a bit implausible: Owe!.

A better contender in terms of segments might be the verb OOH meaning to make an ooh sound, as in the audience oohed and aahed. So if you were in the audience at one of those sitcoms where the audience were directed to laugh, clap, ooh and aah, one of the directions you might get, could feasibly be the imperative:

Ooh!

This fully complete one word sentence consists only of the one vowel. In phonemic script it looks like this: /u:/. This then might be a contender for the shortest sentence in English. But of course there are others. For example there is always:

Aah!

... which looks like this: /a:/!

You could also have the “ah!” of realisation, which is usually just a short /a/. Or a grunt of non-committal /m/. — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Jul 04 '15 at 11:06
@JanusBahsJacquet But would that count as a sentence as opposed to a fragment? — Araucaria - Him, Jul 04 '15 at 11:56
If you're ordering the same audience to make a non-committal sound, sure. — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Jul 04 '15 at 11:59
@JanusBahsJacquet I see, hmmm, possibly, but I reckon that might have to be give us an 'mm' or something :) — Araucaria - Him, Jul 04 '15 at 12:00
@JanusBahsJacquet I was wondering if a word with a short vowel followed by a fortis consonant might be shorter still - i.e. the fortis consonant would clip the length of the vowel considerably. And if it was a stop, the length of the hold phase wouldn't really count as part of the audible word ? What d'you reckong? — Araucaria - Him, Jul 04 '15 at 12:14
Depends on whether you’re talking number of phonemes, number of morae, or actual time of utterance in ms, I suppose. — Janus Bahs Jacquet, Jul 04 '15 at 12:21
@StoneyB No verb there! ; ) Unless Eh? is a pro-sentence meaning What did you just say? I saw an argument like that somewhere once (not about eh though). I thought you might want to add that to your pro-form list of proform thingies. — Araucaria - Him, Jun 14 '16 at 14:44

score -1 · Answer 17 · answered Aug 10 '10 at 05:12

-1

No.

Also

Q: Which is the fifth letter of the alphabet? A: E.

answered Aug 10 '10 at 05:12

Midhat

2,811

Shortest comprehensive sentence in English

17 Answers17

Linked

Related