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Garden path sentences (fun with language)
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Omg, the Language Arts teacher inside of me is screaming right now!!! Saying things like, "would it kill you to use the word 'that'?!?"I'm totally going to use an exercise like this in my classroom; may be it will be an ah-ha moment for my students :0)
Hehe, I've used them with my more advanced ESL students, too.Since they are technically correct sentences, it goes to show that correct doesn't always mean good.
It also shows that commas and adding a few words (like "that") help the reader.
Yes, and it's staggering how many times students make these sort of mistakes in their writing. Even seniors. Even seniors in college prep. classes.
Reading those sentences raised my blood pressure. What a great way to increase one's appreciation for commas. :)
Mod
For example: While Anna dressed the baby spit up on the bed.
First you read “While Anna dressed the baby..” and everything’s fine. The baby is getting dressed. Then you read “..spit up on the bed” and realize something’s wrong, go back and realize that Anna is getting dressed while the baby, who’s lying on the bed, spits up.
A comma would make this sentence much easier to understand: While Anna dressed, the baby spit up on the bed.
Which of these (theoretically) 100% grammatical sentences trip you up the most?
Enjoy:
I told the girl the cat scratched Bill would help her.
The cotton clothing is made of grows in Mississippi.
The florist sent the bouquet of flowers was very flattered.
Because he always jogs a mile seems a short distance to him.
The barge floated down the river sank.
The man who whistled tunes pianos.
The horse raced past the barn fell.
The old man the boat.
The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families.
The author wrote the novel was likely to be a best-seller.
The tomcat curled up on the cushion seemed friendly.
The man returned to his house was happy.
The government plans to raise taxes were defeated.
The sour drink from the ocean.
AND NOW FOR MORE FUN!
Since many of you are authors and generally creative people, can you write any of your own?
Remember how the sentences above take advantage of words that can be different parts of speech such as adjectives that can be nouns or nouns that can be verbs, etc.
I’d love to see what you come up with!
On a side note, I often have similar experiences when reading. I’ve just never written them down. Do you remember any sentences you’ve read that needed some time to digest because of this phenomenon?