A sentence with a surprise ending is called a paraprosdokian. Here are couple of examples...
"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it." Groucho Marx
"If you can' t think of anything nice and kind to say about anyone - why, do come and sit beside me." Alice Roosevelt Longworth
"If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I should not be at all surprised." Dorothy Parker
I'd use it all the time if I could believe that I might ever be able to pronounce it.
ReplyDeleteSeeing your blog come up on my dash board this morning was a nice surprise! I hope you and yours are reasonably well.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, it takes a clever person to come up with these sentences. Hope you are doing well.
ReplyDeleteThose are wonderful sentences, and I learned a new word to describe them, IF I can remember it, that is.
ReplyDeleteNot sure I've ever heard that word. (On the other hand, I'm not sure I'll remember it tomorrow...)
ReplyDelete