We describe a brain-damaged patient who produced two distinctive forms of confabulation, typical and atypical (aphasic), both of which were associated with perseveration, poor self -monitoring, and denial of deficit. We propose that the typical conf abulat ons are triggered by gaps in memory for the period surrounding the onset: of his illness, while the aphasic (fantastic) confabulations are triggered by gaps in semantic representation. These observations suggest that confabulations may comprise a portion of the language deficit in patients with other, varieties of fluent aphasia. © 1986, Masson Italia Periodici s.r.l. Milano. All rights reserved.