Ahhh, I can finally breathe now that it’s fall break. A break from the grind of classes, dining hall food, and the clown hysteria on campus. When I get home, I’ll do everything I wanted to do that by Wednesday, Fall Break boredom will hit me. By then, if I’m with people, we solve our collective boredom with a game my smick friends and I play: the sentence game.
The sentence game is a weird and wonderful way of learning more about the people you’re playing with. You each write down words and phrases that you then combine with each other’s. My friends and I have come up with sentences, like “Queen Elizabeth threw the winning touchdown pass with a hot Spanish guy” and “Tommy Rees played beach volleyball but unfortunately got struck by lightning.”
This game can be played anywhere as long as there are three people, paper, and enough writing utensils to go around. Whether you’re waiting to be picked up from SMC, are travelling with friends, or are back home with family, this game is meant for all.
How to play:
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Tear up a sheet of paper into smaller pieces big enough to write down a few words. Distribute it evenly among friends, such as nine slips each for everyone playing, but also make sure the number each person gets is divisible by three. For example, if there are three people playing and you have twenty-seven total slips, each person gets nine.
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Each person will separate their slips into three categories: Subjects, Verbs, and Predicates. So if everyone has nine slips of paper, then each person will have three slips for each category. When you separate these, write S on the backs of Subjects, V on the backs of verbs, and P on the backs of predicates. Then write what you want on the other side of these pieces.
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Subjects can be anything so long as they are nouns. Every player should write in their own name as one of the subjects. The rest are up to you! Whether you want to name fictional characters, campus celebrities, or things relevant to your group, subjects are just proper or informal nouns. I’ve had a friend write “nobody” during a round.
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Verbs are where you can be as creative or uncreative as you want. Sometimes it’s a one word slip, like “died”, or an over the top description, like “went directly to jail, did not pass ‘go,’ and did not collect $200.” Funnier sentences usually have descriptive and irrelevant actions. Make sure to write them in past tense so they read better. If you can’t think of anything, write whatever just comes to your head with verbs.
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In terms of correct English, I think my friends and I mean prepositions instead of predicates. But in the context of the sentence game, these prepositions conclude the sentence. Here you write a phrases started with prepositions, such as “because why not”, “as Rome burned”, or “on a Thursday night in Nashville, Tennessee.” I sneak in lyrics in this category. It’s okay to break the rules in this category with using prepositions only. One time my roommate wrote “boop dee boop dee doo” and it still had the same effect as one that would’ve started with “since…”
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When you’re done writing on your slips, put them face down at the center of the surface you’re playing on, in three separate piles of their categories. The letter of the slip (S, V or P) should be face up.
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When everyone has put their slips of paper in the piles, players will assign themselves to shuffling certain categories.
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When you are done shuffling, lay out the cards in order of SVP. The person who shuffled the subjects will say what is written on their slip as they lay it down, then the person doing the verbs, and finally the person doing the predicates. Keep reading your sentences until they have all been laid out.
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Reshuffle cards, add more if you want, and repeat.
My friends and I sometimes like writing them in different colors of ink from each other so we can trace back who wrote what. This game is completely up to you and your company. Have fun and have a great fall break, Belles!