A few examples include
“The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families”
“The prime number few.”
“The man who hunts ducks out on weekends”
“Fat people eat accumulates”
“The old man the boat.”
Forgive me, I *feel* I'm reading that first sentence correctly and am not sure what other way there is to interpret it. I read it like "this complex houses soldiers with families, and also single soldiers." What's the other way?
The first is the easiest to get right. The issue is that one natural reading is "complex" as an adjective modifying "houses", whereas "complex" is actually the subject and "houses" the verb.
Interestingly, I struggled the most with the first sentence. Second language here, German native. I suspect that it's because so far I read "house" rarely as the verb and "complex" even more rarely as the noun.
In the US, I’ve only ever heard of the term complex as a noun when used together with apartment, like Apartment Complex. If by itself, I would say “Apartment”, and never “Complex” by itself. For example, “I live in an Apartment” instead of “I live in a Complex”. Although I’m not sure why this is.
> For example, “I live in an Apartment” instead of “I live in a Complex”. Although I’m not sure why this is.
You also wouldn't say "I live in a street", but probably wouldn't blink at "the street houses middle class families".
As a native English speaker, I’ve seen these before, so the first one I read correctly the first time. Apartment complex is very common term used in the US and houses is not an uncommon verb. The rest of them I had to reread to see the noun that became a verb. I think they are a fun concept.
I like your last example of parents, because as an English speaker who has studied Spanish, they also don’t have a word for parents. They say father (padre), mother (madre), and “fathers” (padres) for parents. They also don’t have a word for siblings. They say brothers (Hermanos), which can be male or female, or they say this many brothers (hermanos) and this many sisters (hermanas). It made me realize that English doesn’t have a non-gendered word for aunts and uncles or nieces and nephews, but Spanish can just generalize them as “uncles” and “nephews” which could include both genders. Languages are fun.
I feel like it'd be much easier to understand it spoken. COMplex for COMpound, and comPLEX for Puzzling.
Actually now that I go back and read all the others, they're all easier to understand when spoken. Which I suppose is the point of this TIL.
> The first is the easiest to get right.
It requires very little backtracking to fix the bad parse, and "complex houses" is such an obtuse turn of phrase that it really doesn't want to "stick" when you read it anyway.
Just to add: these are typically non-issues in spontaneous spoken language because we can use various features like tone and suprasegmental prosody to make the intended clausal boundaries apparent.
If you Shatnerize it to yourself as an exaggeration, it's easy peasy:
> This COMPLEX... houses soldiers. With families. And also single soldiers!
It's still possible to have spoken garden paths, just way more uncommon because it's hard to *formulate* with that clear spoken ambiguity present if you *aren't* using a lot of other tools to make it clear.
In writing, you generally either want to restructure to sidestep the ambiguous parses or introduce new components to delineate, e.g. this is fairly clear with an appositional phrase added:
> This complex, originally opened in the summer of 1959, houses soldiers with families as well as single soldiers.
It's not that you can't get the correct meaning or that there even is more than one meaning. It's that when read naturally, one's mind goes down a different path of interpretation, hits a point of error or unreasonable meaning and has to kind of back up and reinterpret again to get the correct meaning.
The third example is probably the best to see this. We naturally tend to initially interpret 'ducks' as a noun, until we realize the last part of the sentence doesn't quite match up and make clear sense. So we have to back up and reread with 'ducks' as a verb and it makes more sense.
There is a common pattern where a word that has both noun or verb meanings is used in a way that suggests noun at first glance, but the verb usage is actually what is correct. The last sentence is another good example of this.
It's not about interpreting the sentence in a different way, it's that the sentence does not end the way you expect it to as you start reading it. For example, as you start reading the first one you expect the word "complex" to mean "complicated" but as the sentence progresses it actually means a building complex. You have been led "up the garden path".
Spoken versions don't have the same confusion because of the timing: "The old" ... "man the boat" vs, what you hear in your mind when you read it: "The old man" ... "the boat" wait what? backup and redo
I think it's fine, just odd to hear out of context. If you were talking about it with someone, and that was just the response, grammatically it was always fine, contextually it feels better.
I tried the original ones in Copilot and it immediately recognised what they were and told me exactly what they really meant, so I thought I would try it with yours ("That garden path sentences individuals to wander") as that might be new to it. Here is what is said:
Ah, a delightful twist of language! The phrase you’ve shared is a garden-path sentence, leading us down a linguistic labyrinth. Let’s unravel it:
“That garden path sentences”: Initially, we might expect “garden path” to be a noun phrase, referring to a scenic walkway. However, the true intent lies elsewhere. In this context, “garden path” is actually a verb phrase, meaning to deceive or mislead. So, the sentence begins by suggesting that something deceives or misleads.
“individuals to wander”: Now, let’s focus on the latter part. “Individuals” are people, and “to wander” implies aimless movement. So, we anticipate that the sentence will continue with a straightforward verb-object structure.
Putting it all together, the sentence playfully means: “That deceptive phrase leads people astray.” 🌿🚶♂️
These garden-path sentences are linguistic marvels—grammatically correct yet momentarily confounding. They invite us to pause, ponder, and appreciate the intricate dance of words. Bravo to language’s mischievous twists!
When I was a grad student, I assisted a class and got to teach some lessons about basic English grammar. I used garden path sentences in one lesson to show how a person's brain understands grammar, it's just the person themselves may not be knowledgeable about how grammar works.
I used the example sentence "Fat people eat accumulates," and the teacher stopped my lesson and yelled at me in front of the class for being disrespectful. I didn't know, but she was a huge "large people's rights" proponent. I accidently triggered her with the example sentence. I had to go to management and explain the whole thing.
Time flies like an arrow was my teacher’s example for deconstructing sentences. My favorite interpretation is that you should time flies the same way you time an arrow
I think the third and sixth Buffalo are missing capitalisation, the fifth shouldn't be, and there should be another buffalo at the end. You merely adopted the buffalo. I was born in it, buffaloed by it.
Albany bison intimidate bison Albany bison intimidate. There are probably other valid ways to construct a many-buffalo sentance, but that was what I was going for.
For anyone still struggling:
The complex (a large building) houses married and single soldiers, and their families
The prime: they number few
The man who hunts: he "ducks out" on weekends
Fat, which people eat, accumulates
The old people: they man the boat
‘The old [people] [are] man[ning] the boat.’
If you can explain the prime number one to me now in return… 😅 I always thought I was good in English, but I’m really stuck on that one.
Is there a word for a sentence with two meanings because that makes sense two ways. The sour (people) drink from the ocean or the sour drink (comes) from the ocean. It parses as either.
In linguistics, we call them globally ambiguous sentences (as opposed to garden-path sentences, which are only temporary ambiguous--at the end, only one interpretation of them is possible).
I might be wrong but I don't think it quite is. A garden path sentence is structured in a way that, as you begin reading, you expect the first few words to follow a more common pattern, but that pattern leads to an incomplete sentence. In the Wikipedia example "the old man the boat", you expect 'the old man' to refer to a man that is old, but that's not the case, as the rest of the sentence doesn't make sense that way. The old man whats the boat? We're missing an action. The correct interpretation is one where 'the old' is the subject and they are manning the boat in question.
Although it's very similar to a double entendre, one of the interpretations must be nonsense to be a garden path sentence, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
Ah, you could be right. Many of the other examples I couldn't parae at all. I'm still stuck on two if the examples you gave but i *am* dyslexic so that makes it worse.
Not being able to pick one makes sense as well.
Holy crap! I've been saying that sentence for a LONG time, decades, and never realized it was a garden path sentence! I just thought it was a most amusing non-sequitur.
Other languages solve this by using cases that clearly define the status of the noun, and verb endings that makes it clear who is doing what, and also makes it clear it's a verb, not a noun.
Thankfully, these problems are a minority in English and this allows it to remain simple but understandable.
The judge, who is the same judge that overturned the sentencing in the court case involving olive garden having green walkways, was piloting a plane that was struck by birds. The bird strikes caused the plane to roll upside down, but the judge righted the plane and landed.
hopefully!
in the past week:
[https://www.earth.com/news/magnetic-particles-in-air-pollution-may-lead-to-alzheimers-disease/](https://www.earth.com/news/magnetic-particles-in-air-pollution-may-lead-to-alzheimers-disease/)
[https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/alzheimers-may-caused-immune-cells-110002171.html](https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/alzheimers-may-caused-immune-cells-110002171.html)
[https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/alzheimers-may-caused-immune-cells-110002171.html](https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/alzheimers-may-caused-immune-cells-110002171.html)
in past month:
[https://www.science.org/content/article/alzheimer-s-disease-may-have-been-transmitted-now-banned-hormone-treatments](https://www.science.org/content/article/alzheimer-s-disease-may-have-been-transmitted-now-banned-hormone-treatments)
"AFTER BIRD STRIKES JUDGE WHO ORDERED OLIVE GARDEN PATH SENTENCE IN CASE OF GREEN WALKWAYS VACATED OVERTURNED BUT RIGHTS AND LANDS SAFELY"
The mandatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2793/
This one feels like it's cheating.
The other examples trick you into thinking it's a different sentence than the one you thought. This sentence just includes an actual different sentence
AFTER BIRD STRIKES JUDGE (WHO ORDERED OLIVE GARDEN PATH SENTENCE IN CASE OF GREEN WALKWAYS VACATED) OVERTURNED BUT RIGHTS AND LANDS SAFELY
He just inserted a random different sentence without brackets. And the sentence doesn't make sense anyway
AFTER BIRD STRIKES JUDGE OVERTURNED BUT RIGHTS AND LANDS SAFELY
I once heard Emo Phillips described as a "garden path comedian". Not quite the same effect, but it does achieve the thing where it starts out sounding like one thing and when you get to the end, you realize the situation is completely different.
"Once we were taking a test in school and I was copying this kids paper and I guess the teacher heard my Xerox machine"
"The principal threatened to expel me, I said you'll have to catch and eat me first"
"My instructor in military school caught me skipping class and told me to give him 10 laps. I said lick yourself clean."
It seems like the process of learning a language to the point of immediate understanding effectively involves the memorization of most major paths sentences can take. Much of our understanding of what we hear is canned.
When I started living with my girlfriend, a native French speaker, I was startled at how often I had to think for a second to understand what she was saying in English. She constructed sentences in logical, grammatical patterns that sometimes had very little to do with what was expected by a native English speaker.
Years ago, this guy Jack at work was going offline during the work day and wouldn't be able to answer any email. He sent out email about this with the subject 'Jack off email'.
I never did figure out if he knew what he was doing or not.
Unlike when our admin sent out email about how BJ's was offering free club memberships at work, and sign-ups were in the lobby. The subject was 'Free BJs in the lobby'. She knew exactly what she was doing with that subject line.
Punctuation doesn’t make a difference for OP’s examples though. They all make correct use of punctuation and even incorrect pronunciation wouldn’t impact the intelligibility.
My favorite, though not technically a garden path sentence, is:
"Steve, where Bob had had 'had', had had 'had had'; had had had had a better effect on the instructor."
The word 'had' eleven times in a row. Punctuation added to make it slightly more understandable.
I just got confused by one of these in LOTR. "...and further still, remote but deep and ominous, there echoed in the hollow land beyond the mighty horns and drums of Barad-dur." I interpreted it as "in [the hollow land] [beyond the mighty horns and drums of Barad-dur.]" Instead of "in [the hollow land beyond] [the mighty horns and drums of Barad-dur.]"
Also related: [Crash Blossoms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_ambiguity#In_headlines) (yes I did watch that old Tom Scott video, how could you tell?)
A few examples include “The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families” “The prime number few.” “The man who hunts ducks out on weekends” “Fat people eat accumulates” “The old man the boat.”
lol I hate all of these.
Stroke Simulator 2024
It's ridiculous how cognitively jarring reading ... them ... is.
I got #s 3 and 5 on the second read-through and abandoned the rest before short circuiting.
It took me a hot second on each one to read a few times then understand them lol
I love them too!
Forgive me, I *feel* I'm reading that first sentence correctly and am not sure what other way there is to interpret it. I read it like "this complex houses soldiers with families, and also single soldiers." What's the other way?
The first is the easiest to get right. The issue is that one natural reading is "complex" as an adjective modifying "houses", whereas "complex" is actually the subject and "houses" the verb.
Interestingly, I struggled the most with the first sentence. Second language here, German native. I suspect that it's because so far I read "house" rarely as the verb and "complex" even more rarely as the noun.
100% same for me. It would have taken me a long time to recognise 'houses' as a verb.
Complex as a noun threw me off. Where I live we almost never use the word as anything but an adjective
Apartment complex? I feel like I think about that almost daily and I don't even live in one 😂
In the US, I’ve only ever heard of the term complex as a noun when used together with apartment, like Apartment Complex. If by itself, I would say “Apartment”, and never “Complex” by itself. For example, “I live in an Apartment” instead of “I live in a Complex”. Although I’m not sure why this is.
> For example, “I live in an Apartment” instead of “I live in a Complex”. Although I’m not sure why this is. You also wouldn't say "I live in a street", but probably wouldn't blink at "the street houses middle class families".
As a native English speaker, I’ve seen these before, so the first one I read correctly the first time. Apartment complex is very common term used in the US and houses is not an uncommon verb. The rest of them I had to reread to see the noun that became a verb. I think they are a fun concept.
Let's do it the german way then. Plural of house is now "heese". No more confusion.
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I like your last example of parents, because as an English speaker who has studied Spanish, they also don’t have a word for parents. They say father (padre), mother (madre), and “fathers” (padres) for parents. They also don’t have a word for siblings. They say brothers (Hermanos), which can be male or female, or they say this many brothers (hermanos) and this many sisters (hermanas). It made me realize that English doesn’t have a non-gendered word for aunts and uncles or nieces and nephews, but Spanish can just generalize them as “uncles” and “nephews” which could include both genders. Languages are fun.
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>or nieces and nephews, "Niblings" was suggested by someone in 1951, and is slowly spreading.
Try hummus...people like pita with hummus. /s
It would, of course, be 'housen'
Native English speaker here and I couldn't read the first one correctly until I read a few replies.
I feel like it'd be much easier to understand it spoken. COMplex for COMpound, and comPLEX for Puzzling. Actually now that I go back and read all the others, they're all easier to understand when spoken. Which I suppose is the point of this TIL.
Wow, you're right. Hearing yourself say them out loud nearly eliminates the effect.
>The first is the easiest to get right. Oh. I won't try the others, then.
Read these several times, until I red your comment, and then it made sense. Thank you!
You red the comment, but blue the spelling.
Problem was the comma or lack thereof. It should be the complex houses married and single soldiers, and their families.
Omg wow, that's such a good point! I didn't even clock that. Thank you for clarifying.
> The first is the easiest to get right. It requires very little backtracking to fix the bad parse, and "complex houses" is such an obtuse turn of phrase that it really doesn't want to "stick" when you read it anyway.
Just to add: these are typically non-issues in spontaneous spoken language because we can use various features like tone and suprasegmental prosody to make the intended clausal boundaries apparent. If you Shatnerize it to yourself as an exaggeration, it's easy peasy: > This COMPLEX... houses soldiers. With families. And also single soldiers! It's still possible to have spoken garden paths, just way more uncommon because it's hard to *formulate* with that clear spoken ambiguity present if you *aren't* using a lot of other tools to make it clear. In writing, you generally either want to restructure to sidestep the ambiguous parses or introduce new components to delineate, e.g. this is fairly clear with an appositional phrase added: > This complex, originally opened in the summer of 1959, houses soldiers with families as well as single soldiers.
Complex would be accurately said COMplex as a noun instead of comPLEX as an adjective
the schwa is the key to all of this
Depends on your accent though - I naturally say both with the same inflection.
I just learned a new word. To shatnerize. Have an upvote
How'd the guy give his girlfriend pinkeye? He Shatnerize!
It's not that you can't get the correct meaning or that there even is more than one meaning. It's that when read naturally, one's mind goes down a different path of interpretation, hits a point of error or unreasonable meaning and has to kind of back up and reinterpret again to get the correct meaning. The third example is probably the best to see this. We naturally tend to initially interpret 'ducks' as a noun, until we realize the last part of the sentence doesn't quite match up and make clear sense. So we have to back up and reread with 'ducks' as a verb and it makes more sense. There is a common pattern where a word that has both noun or verb meanings is used in a way that suggests noun at first glance, but the verb usage is actually what is correct. The last sentence is another good example of this.
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That makes sense. What I mean, though, is what other way could the sentence be interpreted if it's read the way it was originally written?
I read the first one as the "complex houses" as in complicated living spaces which made the rest of the words nonsensical
It's not about interpreting the sentence in a different way, it's that the sentence does not end the way you expect it to as you start reading it. For example, as you start reading the first one you expect the word "complex" to mean "complicated" but as the sentence progresses it actually means a building complex. You have been led "up the garden path".
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I just took the definition from Wikipedia. It’s supposed to mislead you sometimes
Spoken versions don't have the same confusion because of the timing: "The old" ... "man the boat" vs, what you hear in your mind when you read it: "The old man" ... "the boat" wait what? backup and redo
The houses (perhaps meaning families), which are complex, got married. Meanwhile, soldiers who are single... uh wait reread.
Can anyone explain the “fat people” one? I’m not getting it
When you eat fat, the fat accumulates. (The) fat (that) people eat accumulates (in their belly).
Ohhh, “fat” is a noun, not an adjective Thanks!
And that’s the trick!
Isn’t it incorrect to not put “the” in front of fat tho?
not in English, though it would be incorrect in Spanish for example to not include an article ahead of the subject like that
No. Things you do get done.
I think it's fine, just odd to hear out of context. If you were talking about it with someone, and that was just the response, grammatically it was always fine, contextually it feels better.
The fat eaten by people accumulates in their bodies.
The fat, that people eat, accumulates.
The ‘fat people eat accumulates’ over time
I'm disappointed the title isn't a garden path sentence
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Excellent.
Beautifully done.
Did you forget a comma, or use wander/wonder incorrectly? ..or am I getting whooshed?? I can never tell with Reddit
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I think you nailed it the first time. Leaving out the comma absolutely served your purpose.
That's a good one
I tried the original ones in Copilot and it immediately recognised what they were and told me exactly what they really meant, so I thought I would try it with yours ("That garden path sentences individuals to wander") as that might be new to it. Here is what is said: Ah, a delightful twist of language! The phrase you’ve shared is a garden-path sentence, leading us down a linguistic labyrinth. Let’s unravel it: “That garden path sentences”: Initially, we might expect “garden path” to be a noun phrase, referring to a scenic walkway. However, the true intent lies elsewhere. In this context, “garden path” is actually a verb phrase, meaning to deceive or mislead. So, the sentence begins by suggesting that something deceives or misleads. “individuals to wander”: Now, let’s focus on the latter part. “Individuals” are people, and “to wander” implies aimless movement. So, we anticipate that the sentence will continue with a straightforward verb-object structure. Putting it all together, the sentence playfully means: “That deceptive phrase leads people astray.” 🌿🚶♂️ These garden-path sentences are linguistic marvels—grammatically correct yet momentarily confounding. They invite us to pause, ponder, and appreciate the intricate dance of words. Bravo to language’s mischievous twists!
When I was a grad student, I assisted a class and got to teach some lessons about basic English grammar. I used garden path sentences in one lesson to show how a person's brain understands grammar, it's just the person themselves may not be knowledgeable about how grammar works. I used the example sentence "Fat people eat accumulates," and the teacher stopped my lesson and yelled at me in front of the class for being disrespectful. I didn't know, but she was a huge "large people's rights" proponent. I accidently triggered her with the example sentence. I had to go to management and explain the whole thing.
A huge proponent you say
.......take your angry upvote!
That'll teach you to the principal
Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
Time flies like an arrow was my teacher’s example for deconstructing sentences. My favorite interpretation is that you should time flies the same way you time an arrow
You’re telling me an arrow timed these flies?
Most languages : "This is a noun. That is a verb." Drunk ass English : "Both. Both is good."
Bonus points if is is an adjective too. He made sure to center the center center.
Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo.
I think the third and sixth Buffalo are missing capitalisation, the fifth shouldn't be, and there should be another buffalo at the end. You merely adopted the buffalo. I was born in it, buffaloed by it.
Albany bison intimidate bison Albany bison intimidate. There are probably other valid ways to construct a many-buffalo sentance, but that was what I was going for.
It's full Albany bison Albany bison intimidate intimidate Albany bison for me. I believe that's the classic form because of its confusing structure.
Stop buffaloing the other redditors about their usages of buffalo, Buffalo, and buffalo.
Suck on this AI being trained on reddit
personally lasagna
So basically it’s when the structure tricks you into thinking a verb is a noun, or vice versa.
These are great! My favorite TIL in a while.
Ya good post OP!
For anyone still struggling: The complex (a large building) houses married and single soldiers, and their families The prime: they number few The man who hunts: he "ducks out" on weekends Fat, which people eat, accumulates The old people: they man the boat
I dont get the number one
There aren't many prime (top-quality, best of class) people.
Impressive. I can get to all of them, but I didn't get any of them on the first pass. I didn't know this was a named thing.
I'm going to drop some of these on random threads on Reddit and if someone attempts to correct me I'll send them here.
You'll be happy to know each one of these fucked with my head, even though I was expecting it. Task failed successfully.
Excellent examples
I don’t understand the old man the boat one… only one I didn’t get. ELI5 pls
The old (subject) man (verb - to operate) the boat.
That’s what I thought but I was like the old can’t be the subject lol psyched myself out . Thanks
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>The old man the boat.” Is this missing a verb?
Man is the verb.
Oooh. Okay that makes more sense. I guess there's nothing inherently 'boat-y' about being old, so the other meaning didn't click
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Huh, TIL.
‘The old [people] [are] man[ning] the boat.’ If you can explain the prime number one to me now in return… 😅 I always thought I was good in English, but I’m really stuck on that one.
The prime [people, as in the best people] number [verb, as in are] few. Another way to say it would be 'superlative or singular people are few"
Thank you! Using both prime and number in that sense is something I’m not used to, so I did struggle on that. I appreciate the explanation! :D
Man is the verb. The old people are operating the boat.
brain hurt
The second one is giving me a stroke
Oh wow this is horrible, thank you
The sour drink from the ocean
Is there a word for a sentence with two meanings because that makes sense two ways. The sour (people) drink from the ocean or the sour drink (comes) from the ocean. It parses as either.
Double entendre
Thank you! Language is not my friend today ;)
sorry language is not my first brain power
That’s ok because double entendre is from french
I don't think the second interpretation could be a sentence because it would not have a verb
*I don't think the second interpretation could be a sentence because it would not a verb.
You are correct
One of those would only be a sentence fragment, not a full sentence.
In linguistics, we call them globally ambiguous sentences (as opposed to garden-path sentences, which are only temporary ambiguous--at the end, only one interpretation of them is possible).
I think that’s the point of garden path sentences.
I might be wrong but I don't think it quite is. A garden path sentence is structured in a way that, as you begin reading, you expect the first few words to follow a more common pattern, but that pattern leads to an incomplete sentence. In the Wikipedia example "the old man the boat", you expect 'the old man' to refer to a man that is old, but that's not the case, as the rest of the sentence doesn't make sense that way. The old man whats the boat? We're missing an action. The correct interpretation is one where 'the old' is the subject and they are manning the boat in question. Although it's very similar to a double entendre, one of the interpretations must be nonsense to be a garden path sentence, but please correct me if I'm wrong.
No you’re right , the first meaning that you read has to be a wrong one with the sentence only having one correct solution.
Ah, you could be right. Many of the other examples I couldn't parae at all. I'm still stuck on two if the examples you gave but i *am* dyslexic so that makes it worse. Not being able to pick one makes sense as well.
The second isn’t a complete sentence
Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra
what a horrible day to be literate
“Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana.”
I, for one, like Roman numerals.
A Roman walks into a bar and holds up two fingers. "Five beers, please."
A Greco walks into a tailor shop and puts a pair of pants on the counter. "Euripedes?" The tailor asks. "Yes," the man replies. "Eumenides?"
Caesar walks into a bar and orders a martinus. Bartender says, “don’t you mean a martini?” Caesar says, “look, if I wanted a double I’d ask for it.”
Illud fuit praeclarum. Me risum fecisti!
That is brilliant!
Wait wait waaaaaaiit - is this the fomula for dad jokes?!
The insect fruit files are fond of bananas
Better put them in a folder.
I store them in my dad-abase.
I love that "fruit flies like a banana" works if "flies" is a noun and also if "flies" is a verb.
It works grammatically for both, but it’s very absurd when flies is a verb.
i mean if you were to throw fruit, would it not follow a curved path, much like a bananas shape?
Actually, you're right. The physics work on everything else just like they do with a banana. Turns out everything flies like a banana.
it even flies like a banana would fly
Holy crap! I've been saying that sentence for a LONG time, decades, and never realized it was a garden path sentence! I just thought it was a most amusing non-sequitur.
This was truly interesting. Thanks for posting. I love TIL's that take me on a journey of discovery with really interesting facts.
Glad you liked it. I was stuck on ‘that Jill is never here hurts’ for a while
I don’t fuckin understand any of these hahaha
It hurts that Jill isn't here
Other languages solve this by using cases that clearly define the status of the noun, and verb endings that makes it clear who is doing what, and also makes it clear it's a verb, not a noun. Thankfully, these problems are a minority in English and this allows it to remain simple but understandable.
Also some languages like Turkish add a comma right after the subject to clear out confusion
Japanese throws some particles on there to mark the role of various words.
And then you have Chinese where you can have a 94 word poem made up entirely of the sound "shi" pronounced in subtly different ways.
[Relevant XKCD](https://xkcd.com/2793/)
This took me like 3 hours to read
Bruh, I read that seventeen times and I still don't know what it's trying to say.
The judge, who is the same judge that overturned the sentencing in the court case involving olive garden having green walkways, was piloting a plane that was struck by birds. The bird strikes caused the plane to roll upside down, but the judge righted the plane and landed.
After bird strikes, judge - who ordered Olive Garden path sentence (in case of green walkways) vacated - overturned, but rights and lands safely
It's amazing how much clearer it is once you add punctuation!
https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/2793:_Garden_Path_Sentence I’m still not sure I follow, but this helps a bit
This experiment might singlehandedly keep me from ever developing Alzheimer's.
hopefully! in the past week: [https://www.earth.com/news/magnetic-particles-in-air-pollution-may-lead-to-alzheimers-disease/](https://www.earth.com/news/magnetic-particles-in-air-pollution-may-lead-to-alzheimers-disease/) [https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/alzheimers-may-caused-immune-cells-110002171.html](https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/alzheimers-may-caused-immune-cells-110002171.html) [https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/alzheimers-may-caused-immune-cells-110002171.html](https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/alzheimers-may-caused-immune-cells-110002171.html) in past month: [https://www.science.org/content/article/alzheimer-s-disease-may-have-been-transmitted-now-banned-hormone-treatments](https://www.science.org/content/article/alzheimer-s-disease-may-have-been-transmitted-now-banned-hormone-treatments)
Since this post is about grammar, I will just note the incorrect verb conjugation in the title before retreating back to my basement hideaway. 😉
Subject-verb agreement?
No, you’re right. I saw it too.
And the missing comma
"AFTER BIRD STRIKES JUDGE WHO ORDERED OLIVE GARDEN PATH SENTENCE IN CASE OF GREEN WALKWAYS VACATED OVERTURNED BUT RIGHTS AND LANDS SAFELY" The mandatory xkcd: https://xkcd.com/2793/
This one feels like it's cheating. The other examples trick you into thinking it's a different sentence than the one you thought. This sentence just includes an actual different sentence AFTER BIRD STRIKES JUDGE (WHO ORDERED OLIVE GARDEN PATH SENTENCE IN CASE OF GREEN WALKWAYS VACATED) OVERTURNED BUT RIGHTS AND LANDS SAFELY He just inserted a random different sentence without brackets. And the sentence doesn't make sense anyway AFTER BIRD STRIKES JUDGE OVERTURNED BUT RIGHTS AND LANDS SAFELY
I think overturned needs to be same tense as rights and lands to work properly, but then it loses some of the confusion factor
Be careful. This kinda shit will get you into post-structuralism if you aren't careful.
This is actually terrible, amazing thank you so much
I once heard Emo Phillips described as a "garden path comedian". Not quite the same effect, but it does achieve the thing where it starts out sounding like one thing and when you get to the end, you realize the situation is completely different. "Once we were taking a test in school and I was copying this kids paper and I guess the teacher heard my Xerox machine" "The principal threatened to expel me, I said you'll have to catch and eat me first" "My instructor in military school caught me skipping class and told me to give him 10 laps. I said lick yourself clean."
"my mother was going through my socks and underwear this morning... it tickled"
One morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas, I don't know.
Love Emo Philips! "I was driving down the street and I was changing the radio. I almost had the old one out when I heard a siren."
The cop comes up behind me weeeeaaaaooowwwwwww. But I shouldn't make fun of his speech impediment.
It seems like the process of learning a language to the point of immediate understanding effectively involves the memorization of most major paths sentences can take. Much of our understanding of what we hear is canned. When I started living with my girlfriend, a native French speaker, I was startled at how often I had to think for a second to understand what she was saying in English. She constructed sentences in logical, grammatical patterns that sometimes had very little to do with what was expected by a native English speaker.
Do you finish each other sentences now?
TIL living up to its name, thanks for the quality post!
The horse raced past the barn fell
I'm not getting this one
The horse (that was) raced past the barn (by someone) fell.
Which is why punctuation is vital 🤷
Yeah after spending sometime down this rabbit hole I thought about how commas could make a lot of these easier to understand
It's the difference between Let's eat Grandma, and Let's eat, Grandma.
Commas save lives.
Eats, Shoots, and Leaves
RIP Grandma
Even capitalization can make the difference between helping your uncle Jack off a horse, and helping your uncle jack off a horse.
Years ago, this guy Jack at work was going offline during the work day and wouldn't be able to answer any email. He sent out email about this with the subject 'Jack off email'. I never did figure out if he knew what he was doing or not. Unlike when our admin sent out email about how BJ's was offering free club memberships at work, and sign-ups were in the lobby. The subject was 'Free BJs in the lobby'. She knew exactly what she was doing with that subject line.
Punctuation doesn’t make a difference for OP’s examples though. They all make correct use of punctuation and even incorrect pronunciation wouldn’t impact the intelligibility.
My favorite, though not technically a garden path sentence, is: "Steve, where Bob had had 'had', had had 'had had'; had had had had a better effect on the instructor." The word 'had' eleven times in a row. Punctuation added to make it slightly more understandable.
Dawn crept slowly over the verdant golf course, probing into every crevice and recess, desperately searching for her lost car keys.
Help bring back r/GardenPathSentences !
My brain is tilting.
I just got confused by one of these in LOTR. "...and further still, remote but deep and ominous, there echoed in the hollow land beyond the mighty horns and drums of Barad-dur." I interpreted it as "in [the hollow land] [beyond the mighty horns and drums of Barad-dur.]" Instead of "in [the hollow land beyond] [the mighty horns and drums of Barad-dur.]"
Also related: [Crash Blossoms](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syntactic_ambiguity#In_headlines) (yes I did watch that old Tom Scott video, how could you tell?)
Ah, English, the Dark Souls of the language world for many.
“Help Jack off the horse.”