Our typing teacher introduced us to “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” because it is a sentence that has all the letters of the alphabet. Useful, that, in a typing class.
But what inefficiency! Redundant D, H, R, T. Coupla Us. Four Es! Four Os!
C’mon, we can do better, can’t we?
Mr. Jock, T.V. Quiz Ph.D., bags few lynx (26)
‘Mr Jock, TV quiz PhD, bags few lynx.’ Uses all letters once.
One more…Arguably, the best sentence without resorting to weird syntax and abbreviations is the following, two letters shorter than “quick brown fox”:
The five boxing wizards jump quickly.
D’oh!
Best I can do is 27:
“I said ‘bcefghjklmnopqrtuvwxyz’”
Cecil’s column on W as a vowel contains a couple of pangrams–sentences with each letter used only once.
Oh, that was pretty silly of me; here’s 26:
“he said ‘bcfgjklmnopqrtuvwxyz’”
This is the only panagram I’ve ever seen that doesn’t need an explaination to make sense.
I’m with Annie. I mean, cwm on - those pangrams (new word for me) in Cecil’s article are so tortured Amnesty International has gotten involved.
I like the jumping wizards improvements too.
Jackdaws love my big sphynx of quartz.
Damn, 31 letters.
TV quiz drag nymphs blew JFK cox. 
Sure, for a start your sentence lacks the letter s
Secondly, two thes are redundant.
A quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. There, that’s better.
but for a shorter sentence try :
Waltz, bud nymph, for quick jigs vex [28]
The way I heard it is
Waltz, nymph, for quick jigs vex Bud.
One extra “i” and one extra “u”, but not bad.
Nitpick:
[QUOTE=Nature’s Call]
Our typing teacher introduced us to “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” because it is a sentence that has all the letters of the alphabet. Useful, that, in a typing class.
Where is the “S”?
I had always typed it as “The quick sly fox jumped over the lazy brown dog.”
Nit Picked.
[nitpick answer]
It should be :
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
[/nitpick answer]
Here’s my entry:
Quiz jinxed forgivable whacky tramps.
32 letters - but only 5 words.
Granted, it is not the smoothest construction and it almost reads like a headline.
However, it does not have to resort to using the Medieval Magyar-Croation slang word for soup ladle.
I’m wondering if a 4 word sentence could be constructedthe if the word “unforgivable” is used?
Yes, the word “uncopyrightable” uses half the alphabet, but its use in a short sentence would seem extremely contrived. (“Uncopyrightable vixens” - that sort of thing.) Then again, “Unforgivable vixens” shows promise. Hmmmmm …
It’s a refreshing feeling, to be free of nits - having this one freshly picked :smack:
Thanks wolf_meister, yanceylebeef, and Peter Morris!
I love this board!
I remember a couple from Ripley’s Believe it or Not. The first cheats with initials, but it’s only 26 letters:
D.V. Pike Flung J.Q. Scwartz my Box
The next doesn’t cheat, but is comprehensible:
Jackdaws Love my Big Sphinx of Quartz
all the 26-letter “non-cheating” ones I’ve heard of are incomprehensible, using very weird words.