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Guess My Sentence

cartoon kid, looks like he is thinking
No. of Players: 2
Type of Game: written
What you need: pen and paper

Goal

To guess a four-word sentence.

How to play

Each player thinks of a sentence four words in length, writes it down and keeps it hidden from the other player. No proper names are permitted. The first player then tries to guess the other player's sentence. The second player tells the first player whether the words in the guessed sentence alphabetically precede or follow the words in his own hidden sentence. The second player then takes a turn at guessing the first player's sentence, who gives similar feedback to the second player. Both players continue to guess and receive feedback in turn, until one player's hidden sentence is correctly guessed.

Example

Alec and Blair write their sentences and keep them hidden from each other. Alec offers a first guess.

Alec: Our Dad works hard.
Blair: Before, before, after, same.

This means that the first two words in Alec's sentence come alphabetically before the corresponding words in Blair's sentence, while the third word comes after, and the fourth word starts with the same letter. When Alec guesses again, he chooses words with this feedback in mind.

Alec: Your pet is happy.
Blair: After, after, before, same.

Alec now knows that the first word starts with a letter between O and Y, the second word with a letter between D and P, the third word between I and W and the fourth word starts with H. Here's his next guess.

Alec: Running is very healthy.
Blair: Before, correct, after, same.

Alec has narrowed the possible words down even further. He now knows the first word starts with a letter between R and Y, he's guessed the second word correctly, the third word starts between I and V, and the fourth word starts with H. Eventually Alec correctly guesses Blair's hidden sentence.

Alec: Today is not hot.
Blair: Yes, that's it!

Did you know?

The world's longest sentence is 2,403,109 words in length. It was published in Nigel Tomm's 2008 novel The Blah Story.

three books stacked on top of each other

Since it takes 3,248 pages to write out all of its 15,403,732 characters (with spaces), it must run across multiple volumes of the novel: while it begins in Volume 16, the ending period is only dropped in Volume 19.

chains of letters running into vanishing horizon

Incidently, this sentence also contains the world's longest word, which clocks in with a jaw-dropping 3,609,750 letters!

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