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The tongue-twister goes:

Can a can of canned cans can a canned can of cans, if a can of canned cans can can a canned can of cans? Yes, a can of canned cans can can a canned can of cans, if a canned can of cans can can a canned can of cans.

It plays on the multiple-meaning word can, which variously means could, a cylindrical tin container, and to be in a cylindrical tin container (canned).

A less confusing version would be:

Can a tin can, which contains contained tin cans, contain a tin can, which contains smaller tin cans, if they could?

Of course it could, because the question already claimed that it could do that.

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  • 2
    Given that you can make sense of it, what makes you think it's not grammatically correct?
    – KillingTime
    Commented Nov 10 at 13:31
  • I commonly make little grammar mistakes that I couldn't spot myself, so I thought that others may be able to do so. Plus, my country is foreign, and I especially live in the countrysides, so I have limited access to people who's able to help me.
    – SandieYT
    Commented Nov 10 at 13:45
  • Also "to put into a cylindrical metal container," or even, by extension, into a glass jar.
    – phoog
    Commented Nov 11 at 16:22
  • It's grammatical but nonsensical.
    – Lambie
    Commented Nov 11 at 20:46
  • More well known, but not really a tongue twister: Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo
    – Barmar
    Commented Nov 11 at 21:28

2 Answers 2

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Given the original:

Can a can of canned cans can a canned can of cans, if a can of canned cans can can a canned can of cans? Yes, a can of canned cans can can a canned can of cans, if a canned can of cans can can a canned can of cans.

To figure out whether this is grammatical, all you have to do is disentangle all the many uses of can and its inflections by applying a series of lexical substitutions using alternate words with similar meaning.

I’ll do this in five steps, although the last one isn’t strictly necessary.

  1. modal verb can = present tense of modal verb could, periphrastic to be able to

    • Could a can of canned cans can a canned can of cans, if a can of canned cans could can a canned can of cans? Yes, a can of canned cans could can a canned can of cans, if a canned can of cans could can a canned can of cans.

  2. noun: a can = a tin, a container, an enclosure, a package

    • Could a container of canned containers can a canned container of containers, if a container of canned containers could can a canned container of containers? Yes, a container of canned containers could can a canned container of containers, if a canned container of containers could can a canned container of containers.

  3. adjective canned = tinned, packaged, preserved

    • Could a container of packaged containers can a packaged container of containers, if a container of packaged containers could can a packaged container of containers? Yes, a container of packaged containers could can a packaged container of containers, if a canned container of containers could can a packaged container of containers.

  4. lexical verb to can = to preserve OR to contain, package, enclose

    • Could a container of packaged containers enclose a packaged container of containers, if a container of packaged containers could enclose a packaged container of containers? Yes, a container of packaged containers could enclose a packaged container of containers, if a packaged container of containers could enclose a packaged container of containers.

  5. modal verb can/could > periphrastic to be able to

    • Is a container of packaged containers able to enclose a packaged container of containers, if a container of packaged containers is able to enclose a packaged container of containers? Yes, a container of packaged containers is able to enclose a packaged container of containers, if a packaged container of containers is able to enclose a packaged container of containers.

That shows you that the original was in fact grammatical. That doesn’t mean it’s a particularly interesting formulation by any means.

It’s really just a variation on several other existing but equally nonsensical word-plays, as though it were a blend of How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood? on the one hand and Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo on the other.

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  • The lexical verb can needs an agent (e.g. a person, a machine). The can cannot can things.
    – Tinfoil Hat
    Commented Nov 10 at 16:35
  • @TinfoilHat Interesting perspective. To me that feels overspecified, or at least over-finicky, for the task at hand, but you could be right. I guess I was envisioning some mad, animated riff on Disney's classic Fantasia – The Sorcerer's Apprentice, where any manner of otherwise inanimate things become fantastically animated. :) I wasn't imagining some sort of middle voice like books that read well or wine that drinks well.
    – tchrist ♦
    Commented Nov 10 at 17:33
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    Seems like something that could be found in a 1940s Looney Toons episode...
    – Tinfoil Hat
    Commented Nov 10 at 17:53
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The example is grammatically correct.

In the example, the second sentence is basically a repetition of the first.

The solution is to substitute the noun, verb and adjective for completely different noun, verb and adjective that have the same form:

Thus:

Can a can of canned cans can a canned can of cans, if a can of canned cans can can a canned can of cans? Yes, a can of canned cans can can a canned can of cans, if a canned can of cans can can a canned can of cans.

becomes

[Question]. Will a box of large boxes hide a large box of boxes, if a box of large boxes will hide a large box of boxes? [Answer] Yes, a box of large boxes will hide a large box of boxes, if a large box can hide a large box of boxes.

This can be further simplified by pronouns:

Will these hide those, if those will hide similar ones? Yes, these will hide those, if those will hide similar ones.

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