Ok, the predictive text challenge didn’t exactly set the WW world on fire and I promise a much more literary effort next time around but would anybody care to have a go at the Quick Brown Fox before getting back to the prose?

You won’t need a mobile phone but a set of Scrabble letters is very useful (though, it’s almost as easy just to write the letters and cut them out. I used coloured paper for the 26 and white for any extra letters).

So, ‘The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog’ – the famous sentence that uses all the 26 letters of the alphabet. What I didn’t realise, until I tried to think up an alternative, was how clever this formulation is. Anyway, I fiddled with letters for a while and came up with something.

I’m not particularly proud of it. You have to think of an unpleasant, lazy, joke-cracking piggish person who is normally very stoical but who gets all emotional when he becomes famous for winning a major quiz (ie not stretching the imagination too much!) One could then say ‘Fame moves the bad, lax, joky, quiz- crown pig’.

(The spellcheck doesn’t like ‘joky’ but it’s in the dictionary)

The eagle-eyed will notice that my version is one letter shorter than the quick brown fox’s 35 and I have repeated only one consonant whereas the other one repeats three.

Can anyone do better? The rules (arbitrarily concocted by me) are:

1. Must be a proper sentence with a verb.
2. None of the words of the ‘quick brown fox’ to be used except ‘the’ – but you can use ones that I have in my version.
3. No proper nouns.

I’m pretty sure it is impossible to have just 26 letters but can anyone, probably a champion Scrabble player which I’m categorically not, get anywhere near it?

With breath bated I await.

Richard.

Well, i tried and tried but the closest i could get is 38 letters, repeating two consonants.

Very warm fogs hijacked a quiet boxing plaza.

Very tricky challenge.

Louise

Louise, I think that's brilliant - much better than mine. Very poetic! Who cares about the extra letters? I'm well impressed (Just read it again and realised that I'm just a tad jealous! Excellent!)
Richard.

IB, this one is for you. 36 letters I'm afraid.

Crazy daft pig jokes vex quiet Welsh barmen.

Hope it's OK to use an adjective that needs a capital letter.

I'm godbsmacked! Two fantastic efforts! I'm so impressed (and again, a little jealous - it's back to the Scrabble letters for me if ever I have the time)Your effort and Louise's are so much more memorable and poetic than my tortured attempt. I really hope that others have a go; I'd love to build up a WW collection of alphabet sentences.
Richard.

I meant to say when this first popped up (but promptly forgot) that anyone who loves all this word play should try ella minnow pea It's a sweet little story about an island where the quick brown fox sentence is venerated. However, when the monument bearing this legacy starts to fall apart, so does the islander's language. For as each letter falls to the ground, it is removed from use, by law. When Z goes, it's not too much of a problem; but once the vowels start dropping, it gets tricky. Fun and inventive for those who fancy something a little different.

Katie

<Added>

Of course that should be islanders' (blame my nomadic apostrophes) I would have put this in the reviews section, but thought it more useful here - hope that's ok.

Elspeth, Many thanks for the info. Sounds fascinating! If every I get a chance I'll have a look at Ella Minnow Pea. I hope your comment inspires others to have a go at The Quick Brown Fox challenge. It'd be wonderful if WW could produce an equally elegant alternative.
Richard.

Right, I've put a note about the book in the review section. Do have a read Richard - it makes you realise how much we take language for granted.

Katie