Just to clarify in a sentence11/16/2023 ![]() The cotton clothing is made of grows in Georgia.įrustrating, huh? See what happens when you squeeze the word “that” between “cotton” and “clothing.”.Add a complementizer like which, that, or whom to clarify the meaning While Hannah was eating, the pie was still baking in the oven.ĭoesn’t that read better? A simple comma can save a sentence.While Hannah was eating the pie was still baking in the oven.įix this garden-path sentence with a comma after “eating”:.Take this garden-path sentence for example: ![]() Let’s fix some together so you can get the hang of some common techniques. Since there are a variety of garden-path sentences, there are a variety of ways to fix them. When editing work, you’ll recognize a garden-path sentence when you see it, or more accurately, trip over it. When you see these sorts of sentences spring up in your work, fix them. These ten sentences are all grammatically correct, but that doesn’t make them good. Wherever Jane walks the dog chases her.While the woman hunted the deer ran into the woods.When Mia called her old mother was happy.Read these ten examples out loud so you know what to look for in the future. The best way to identify garden-path sentences is to read your work out loud so you can hear yourself verbally trip over them. “Have you ever heard the term “leading someone down the garden path” to describe deceiving someone? That’s what garden-path sentences do: deceive.” 10 examples of garden-path sentences Take our editing advice: If you want crystal-clear writing and happy readers, avoid garden-path sentences. The writer could avoid this confusion by reworking the sentence as “We painted the cracked wall.” We then understand “with cracks” describes the wall and not what the wall was painted with. Then we readers return to the beginning and reread the sentence. Did we paint the wall with baby blue paint? Or did we paint the wall with the blood of our enemies? Who knows? Whatever the next word is, we anticipate it will be an object of the preposition that will answer the question, “What did we paint the wall with?” Instead, the next word is “cracks.” Well, that doesn’t make sense! You cannot paint something with cracks. We then see the word “with” and anticipate that it’s starting a prepositional phrase that will describe what we painted the wall with. ![]() We begin by interpreting the first part as, “We painted the wall”: subject, verb, direct object. But as a reader, we trip up while reading it. Grammatically, there’s nothing wrong with the above sentence. Garden-path sentences frustratingly interrupt the flow of the rest of the work.įor example, look at this garden-path sentence: However, when a sentence contains an ambiguous beginning, it’s possible to interpret the sentence wrong-forcing us to return to the beginning to reprocess the sentence to get to its true meaning. Elevate your writing with real-time, intelligent assistance Learn MoreĪs readers, we generally attempt to understand a sentence left to right as we read it.
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