With digits and letters
"HU1T M0T5 4V3C D35 CH1FFR35 3T D35 L377R35." is an example of a self-referential statement. Other examples, again in French, include "Cinq C, cinq I, cinq N, cinq Q." and "Six S, six I, six X, six U, six N, un A, un B, un C, un D, un E." Many variations on this theme are possible.
Our neighbors are not to be outdone! Readers who know Italian will no doubt appreciate "Sette E, tre R, tre S, sette T." German speakers may be familiar with "Acht A, acht C, acht E, acht H, acht I, acht N, acht T, ein B, ein D, ein F, ein G, ein J, ein K, ein L." or one of its variants. Mathematics teacher Manfred Arens devised the following, also in Goethe's language: "Dieser Satz enthält genau fünf ‘E’." (literally, "This sentence contains exactly five ‘E's."), "Dieser Satz enthält genau sechs ‘E’." (the same sentence, with six "E's") and "Dieser Satz enthält genau sieben ‘E’." (the same again, with seven "E's"!).
Gilles Esposito-Farèse of the Institut d’astrophysique de Paris, paraphrasing Georges Perec's La Disparition (a novel written without using the letter "e", published by Gallimard in 1969), pulled off the following feat:
*"Trois ‘a’, un ‘b’, trois plus un ‘c’, trois plus un ‘d’, un ‘f’, cinq ‘g’, trois plus un ‘h’, vingt-six ‘i’, un ‘j’, un ‘k’, huit ‘l’, trois ‘m’, vingt-trois ‘n’, dix ‘o’, huit plus un ‘p’, trois plus un ‘q’, huit plus un ‘r’, vingt-trois moins un ‘s’, dix plus six ‘t’, vingt-cinq ‘u’, cinq ‘v’, un ‘w’, six ‘x’, un ‘y’, un ‘z’, mais pas d’‘’."*
