Sunday Well Spent? Shashi Tharoor Tries to Find Shortest Pangram

A pangram is the shortest possible sentence that uses all 26 letters of the alphabet.

Shashi Tharoor in his office. (Photo: The Quint)

For years, English grammar teachers have taught us the shortest possible sentence that uses all 26 letters of the alphabet, or a pangram, is “the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.”

And for years, we have held onto that knowledge like it was sacrosanct.

In a Facebook post, Shashi Tharoor shared a glimpse of his laid-back weekend spent brainstorming with his friends, who were trying to find other contenders for this mantle.

Tharoor suggests “pack my box with five dozen liquor jugs” which is 31 characters long, as opposed to the 32 letters for “brown fox”. Another is “how quickly daft jumping zebras vex”, which is 30 letters long and therefore the clear winner.

His post left grammar enthusiasts thinking and a fun weekend lesson was had by all!