The Horse Raced Past the Barn Fell

The title of this article is an example of a garden path sentence. The idea is that as you read each word it makes sense until you get to the word "fell" and which point you have to back track in the sentence for it to make sense. Our usual strategy of adding one word to our mind in turn fails with such sentences. For example, reading "The horse" we correctly ascertain the subject noun, then "raced" gives us the verb and "past the barn" gives us the location; but then we stumble on this extra verb "fell" and can't reconcile it with the rest of the sentence.

Instead the correct interpretation of the sentence would be that "the horse", which was "raced past the barn", fell. So it was the horse, rather than the barn which fell.

Let's look at some more examples. "The old man the boat." Once again, as we travel through the sentence we fall into a trap. After "The old" our brain thinks, ok, we have an adjective; so we should have a noun next, so we interpret "man" as that noun. However "The old" should be taken as the noun, and "man" as a verb, as in manning a boat.

Try parsing this one: "The complex houses married and single soldiers and their families." Got it? Think complex as in a building complex rather than as an adjective.

And I'll leave you with a classic: "Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana."

If you like these, google garden path sentences and you'll find loads. I love them.