Confusing sentences

Illuminattile

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Nov 26, 2002
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How many of these sentences make sense to you? Which are easy to understand and which take some 'unravelling'?

* The horse raced past the barn fell.
* The man who hunts ducks out on weekends.
* The cotton clothing is usually made of grows in Mississippi.
* Fat people eat accumulates.
* The complex houses married and single students and their families.
* The old man the boat.
* The tycoon sold the offshore oil tracts for a lot of money wanted to kill JR.
* I convinced her children are noisy.
* The player kicked the ball kicked the ball.
* While Anna dressed the baby cried on the bed.
 
Only four sentences make sense to me (2,8,9,10). Maybe its due to the fat english is not my first language.
 
They don't need commas, per se. If they had commas they'd be easier to understand though.

Militant said:
Researching garden path sentances, I see.
I'm not, personally, but a friend of mine is. I thought it was quite interesting, though.

Then again, I thought "time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana" was really funny.
 
Illuminattile said:
* The horse raced past the barn fell. - Incorrect
* The man who hunts ducks out on weekends. - Correct
* The cotton clothing is usually made of grows in Mississippi. - Depends on what 'grows' means
* Fat people eat accumulates. - Accumulates as in the o durb?
* The complex houses married and single students and their families. - Fuck that. Incorrect and a slap.
* The old man the boat. - Acceptable
* The tycoon sold the offshore oil tracts for a lot of money wanted to kill JR. - Incorrect
* I convinced her children are noisy. - Correct
* The player kicked the ball kicked the ball. - Acceptable
* While Anna dressed the baby cried on the bed. - Correct
 
* The tycoon sold the offshore oil tracts for a lot of money wanted to kill JR.


Still don't understand this one fully. Did he sell the tracts for money because he wanted to kill JR? Or..?


"* The player kicked the ball kicked the ball."

:confused:



Rest of them took 5 secs tops to figure out.

Edouble, it's said that the cotton, of which clothing is made, usually grows in Mississippi.
 
Illuminattile said:
How many of these sentences make sense to you? Which are easy to understand and which take some 'unravelling'?

* The horse raced past the barn fell.
* The man who hunts ducks out on weekends.
* The cotton clothing is usually made of grows in Mississippi.
* Fat people eat accumulates.
* The complex houses married and single students and their families.
* The old man the boat.
* The tycoon sold the offshore oil tracts for a lot of money wanted to kill JR.
* I convinced her children are noisy.
* The player kicked the ball kicked the ball.
* While Anna dressed the baby cried on the bed.
The only ones I don't get are bolded.
 
The Complex Houses (as In Howzes) Married And Single Students Plus Their Families
 
What the hell i don't get and wanna know is what's the point of these sentences. theyre all wrong cause to break the code u have to add shit. I want some real word 4 word confusing ass sentences that are actualy right. i want them now and i want them hot
 
EDouble said:
What the hell i don't get and wanna know is what's the point of these sentences. theyre all wrong cause to break the code u have to add shit. I want some real word 4 word confusing ass sentences that are actualy right. i want them now and i want them hot
You don't have to "add shit". They're all "right", they're just confusing. If you do insert commas or other words, they become more understandable, but as is they're all grammatically correct sentences.

The horse [that was] raced past the barn [by something else], fell.

The man who hunts, ducks out on weekends.

The cotton [that] clothing is usually made of grows in Mississippi.

[The] Fat [that] people eat accumulates.

The complex houses married and single students and their families.
"Houses" is a transitive verb rather than a noun. "The complex" is the subject and "married and single students and their families" is the direct object.

The old man the boat.
Again, "man" is a transitive verb with "The old" being the subject and "the boat" being the object

The tycoon [who was] sold the offshore oil tracts for a lot of money, wanted to kill JR.

I convinced her [that] children are noisy.

The player [who was] kicked the ball, kicked the ball.
Has the same meaning as "The player thrown the ball threw the ball", but there's no ambiguity because "thrown" and "threw" aren't the same.

While Anna dressed, the baby cried on the bed.
 
The horse raced past the barn fell.
The horse [highlight]that[/highlight] raced past the barn fell


The man who hunts ducks out on weekends.
(Grammatically correct. "Ducks out" is the verb in the sentence, not "hunts.")


The cotton clothing is usually made of grows in Mississippi.
The cotton [highlight]of which clothing is usually made[/highlight] grows in Mississippi.


Fat people eat accumulates.
Fat [highlight]that[/highlight] people eat accumulates.


The complex houses married and single students and their families.
(Grammatically correct. [The complex] houses [married and single students] and [their families.])


The old man the boat.
(Grammatically correct. "Old" is a noun, not an adjective, and "man" is a verb, not a noun.)


The tycoon sold the offshore oil tracts for a lot of money wanted to kill JR.
The tycoon [highlight]to whom[/highlight] the offshore oil tracts were sold wanted to kill JR.


I convinced her children are noisy.
I convinced her [highlight]that[/highlight] children are noisy.


The player kicked the ball kicked the ball.
The player [highlight]who[/highlight] kicked the ball kicked the ball.


While Anna dressed the baby cried on the bed.
While Anna dressed[highlight],[/highlight] the baby cried on the bed.







Not hard to figure out. It just takes advantage of all the common mistakes people make in casual conversation.
 
Illuminattile said:
You don't have to "add shit". They're all "right", they're just confusing. If you do insert commas or other words, they become more understandable, but as is they're all grammatically correct sentences.

The horse [that was] raced past the barn [by something else], fell.

The man who hunts, ducks out on weekends.

The cotton [that] clothing is usually made of grows in Mississippi.

[The] Fat [that] people eat accumulates.

The complex houses married and single students and their families.
"Houses" is a transitive verb rather than a noun. "The complex" is the subject and "married and single students and their families" is the direct object.

The old man the boat.
Again, "man" is a transitive verb with "The old" being the subject and "the boat" being the object

The tycoon [who was] sold the offshore oil tracts for a lot of money, wanted to kill JR.

I convinced her [that] children are noisy.

The player [who was] kicked the ball, kicked the ball.
Has the same meaning as "The player thrown the ball threw the ball", but there's no ambiguity because "thrown" and "threw" aren't the same.

While Anna dressed, the baby cried on the bed.
Actually, they're not all correct. We accept these mistakes in common speech, but that doesn't mean they are no longer mistakes.

There should be no comma in two (unless you were just using that to highlight the break so that others could see it).

In three, you are not supposed to end the prepositional phrase with the preposition, but people do it all of the time. That is why it does not make sense.

You add the word "was" a lot to make the sentences sensible. To me, if you need to add a verb, then the sentence is completely wrong. You don't need to though. The addition of "that" or "to whom" solves every sentence.

Again, no comma in 9 though I think you only meant to highlight the break. There's no need for "was" either. The sentence is just redundant.
 

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