This list is inspired by Edward Gorey's method of using strange disjointed sentences from translation books as dialogue in such works of his as The Grand Passion & The Doleful Domesticity. Here are some bizarre examples from a dictionary/phrasebook of my parents’ native language:
- I am going to whip you.
- Why are the animals dead?
- It has three eyes!
- What is your motive for belittling me?
- You are blind with your eyes open.
- No matter what you say, you can't poison my mind.
- Will you be happy about it if he dies?
- He supposedly died being shot.
- They saw each other in the pineapple field.
- When they went there, they cried.
- They pretended to laugh out of the shame.
- He is pretending to cook with others.
- These noodles are infested with flies.
- The rice cake is hard.
- Does it have curative powers?
- I can’t forget their almost forgetting me the last time I went home.
with very specific single words for
- rice crust
- being a fake lawyer
- carrying around a machete
- praying insincerely
- wearing shoes inappropriately
- everyone doing their own cleaning at the same time
& so many synonyms for “bowlegged”.