Activity for English learners: Punctuation is important! 2

Question

Here are two sentences, without any punctuation:

James while John had had had had had had had had had had had a better effect on the teacher

With correct punctuation they make sense and are grammatically correct.

Clue: James an John are students of English who had two different answers to a question on an exam paper.

This is so difficult let's say no native speakers for the first 12 hours after posting, to give the learners a chance to analyze it and answer. After that if it's still not solved then anyone can try. I'll be really really impressed by whoever gets it, I could never figure it out!

Be brave! Don't google it!

wow this is hard, I got the idea of the phrase but I still can't figure out how to put the punctuation.l - 00b6f46c, Apr 2, 2011

Don't feel bad, Lovely. I don't know the answer either. - Leatha, Apr 2, 2011

Tip: Try starting from the end instead of the start, and remember the clue! - rabbitwho, Apr 2, 2011

If any non-native speaker gets this I will be amazed - I heard years ago but can't "get it" now. - ian-hill, Apr 2, 2011

you underestimated our community :) - rabbitwho, Apr 2, 2011

Answer 1

Just a try:

James, while John had had ''had had'', had had ''had''. ''had had'' had had a better effect on the teacher.

It still makes me confused when I read it, but I think the sentence means that there were two students, one of them used ''had had'' as an answer and the other used ''had'' as an answer, but the teacher liked the first one

Perfect! But you can put a full stop after "had" . ;) - rabbitwho, Apr 2, 2011

really???! - 00b6f46c, Apr 2, 2011

Also, you are a genius :D - rabbitwho, Apr 2, 2011

Thanks so much :) - 00b6f46c, Apr 2, 2011

WOW!! I'm very impressed!! Buen trabajo Lovely, y un gran enigma Rebecca!! :) - 001a2987, Apr 2, 2011

Answer 2

I know that you know that we all know that you know that I know that you know that this is insane. I don't know if you know that I know that you don't know if you can know where to put punctuations in that sentence.

Not the answer but you get a vote anyway from me dew. - ian-hill, Apr 2, 2011