# How do you read this sentence (no spaces)? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 7, 2011, 4:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139 "2011-07-07T04:36:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Meltdown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Meltdown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meltdown)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/41 "2011-07-08T18:06:36Z")
Slightly off-topic – back in 2003, there was a short-lived (I was perhaps the only viewer) TV series called “Miracles” starring Skeet Ulrich, that could best be described as an X-Files wannabe, only with spiritual phenomena rather than extraterristrial. [IMDb Page.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320075/combined) Anyway, I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember that someone saw the phrase “Godisnowhere” appear somewhere, and there was a debate on whether the message was “God is now here” or “God is nowhere.” The writers probably read the same book as the OP and switched out the first word. ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/42 "2011-07-08T18:19:51Z")
> [@Meltdown](#): > > Slightly off-topic – back in 2003, there was a short-lived (I was perhaps the only viewer) TV series called “Miracles” starring Skeet Ulrich, that could best be described as an X-Files wannabe, only with spiritual phenomena rather than extraterristrial. [IMDb Page.](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0320075/combined) > > Anyway, I don’t remember much about it, but I do remember that someone saw the phrase “Godisnowhere” appear somewhere, and there was a debate on whether the message was “God is now here” or “God is nowhere.” The writers probably read the same book as the OP and switched out the first word. Off topic, maybe, but THANK YOU! It’s been bugging me where I’d seen (something like) the OP’s “test” before. I quite liked that show. IIRC, the phrase was written on the windshield of a car during a Strange Phenomenon of some sort. ---
**Author:** ![Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@Swallowed\_My\_Cellphone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Swallowed_My_Cellphone)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/43 "2011-07-08T19:49:45Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I’d call it bunk until I see a study. My inclination is simply to form words as I see them: > > l-o-v-e (word) i-s (word) n-o (word) w-h-e-r-e (word) I did exactly that. As a result I read it as “Love is no where…” like it was a sentence fragment and it didn’t make sense to me at all before. Does that mean I’m “meh” about my relationship? ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 8:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/44 "2011-07-08T20:45:52Z")
However, I was always a whole word, not a phonetic word reader. “nowhere” is a more natural word formation to me than “now here”. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [July 8, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/45 "2011-07-08T20:56:59Z")
" Lovei snow here" At first I thought, “They got the i and the e mixed up.” Then i thought “lovie”? that must be some foreign slang, probably British, for the word “lovely”. ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/46 "2011-07-11T03:24:02Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Love I snow here. What are you, a Horta? ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/47 "2011-07-11T03:39:12Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > I saw it as “Love is no here.” > I’m not sure what that says about me. You have w-blindness? ---
**Author:** ![CoffinMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@CoffinMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CoffinMan)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 4:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/48 "2011-07-11T04:02:48Z")
> [@Idle\_Thoughts](#): > > Reply before reading the other replies. > > Read this sentence and put spaces in it where you _first_ think/notice they should go. > Loveisnowhere > Interesting bit of trivia: > > [spoiler]Apparently those who are more optimistic and/or in a healthy relationship read it as “Love is now here” > > Pessimists and/or people in an unhealthy relationship/no relationship read it as “Love is nowhere” > > I have no cite for this, just something I read in a book. Probably bunk, because my prediction is that more people will initially see “Love is nowhere” before realizing it could be “Love is now here” as well.[/spoiler] I read it as “love is nowhere” first time then on second glance “love is now here” Don’t know what that implies, but I am happily married and I think a fairly optimistic dude. ---
**Author:** ![scratch\_llll](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9fc348/32.png) [@scratch\_llll](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scratch_llll)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/49 "2011-07-11T04:29:44Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > I’d call it bunk until I see a study. My inclination is simply to form words as I see them: > > l-o-v-e (word) i-s (word) n-o (word) w-h-e-r-e (word) > > That’s first impression. Only once I’ve taken it all in and had the chance to reanalyze do I see “now here.” I don’t see what that process would have to do with my love life or outlook. This is correct not because of phonetics but because we read left to right. People who read “now here” do so because they won’t take no for an answer. Obviously they are not happily married optimists but rapists.😉 ---
**Author:** ![AnalogSignal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/analogsignal/32/1085_2.png) [@AnalogSignal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AnalogSignal)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/50 "2011-07-11T06:32:58Z")
Bothversionsareprettyobvious ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2011, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/51 "2011-07-11T15:39:58Z")
I saw “nowhere” and I am ridiculously atwitter with fresh green love. Sorry, man. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 1:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/52 "2011-07-12T13:17:37Z")
“Love is nowhere” Because I’m a very logical thinker and I broke it down into the smallest number of possible parts. Besides, it is more natural for me to express the other sentiment as “Love is here now.” The OP factoid sounds like it was spawned from sime middle-aged uber-Christian spinster from rural Kentucky. Someone who collects “Precious Moments” figurines. > [@Chessic\_Sense](#): > > Try this one: > > Cometogetherrightnow Ok, that was pretty funny. ---
**Author:** ![Suil\_Dubh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/85f322/32.png) [@Suil\_Dubh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suil_Dubh)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2011, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139/53 "2011-07-12T21:52:24Z")
I’m willing to bet that “is nowhere” is a much, much stronger collocation than “now here”, hence people’s tendency to parse that first, regardless of their outlook on life. > **[Collocation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collocation)** > > In corpus linguistics, a collocation is a series of words or terms that co-occur more often than would be expected by chance. In phraseology, a collocation is a type of compositional phraseme, meaning that it can be understood from the words that make it up. This contrasts with an idiom, where the meaning of the whole cannot be inferred from its parts, and may be completely unrelated. > There are about seven main types of collocations: adjective + noun, noun + noun (such as collective nouns), noun... (Similarly, I can see “here and now” or “here, now” being much more frequent than "now here.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-read-this-sentence-no-spaces/588139.md?page=2)