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[-] TheSlad@sh.itjust.works 168 points 3 days ago

The opposite is "garden path sentences" that seem incorrect or gibberish at first, but then make sense once you've correctly parsed them.

"The old man the boat"

[-] blueduck@piefed.social 97 points 3 days ago

Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana

[-] tetris11@feddit.uk 17 points 3 days ago

Teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a day, give a man a fish and he'll eat for the rest of his (*stab*) life.

[-] CannonFodder@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago

Give a man fire, he'll be warm for a while, set a man on fire, he'll be warm for the rest of his life.

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[-] PantaloonMonsoon@sh.itjust.works 46 points 3 days ago

Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.

[-] lobut@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 days ago

I remember seeing it in school and having it explained to me so many times and my brain just refuses to understand it.

[-] RustyEarthfire@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago

Buffalonian bison [that] Buffalonian bison bully [, likewise] bully Buffalonian bison

(Buffalonian is the demonym for residents of Buffalo, NY)

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[-] macji@pawb.social 9 points 3 days ago

Have you ever had a dream that, that, um, that you had, uh, that you had to, you could, you do, you wit, you wa, you could do so, you do you could, you want, you wanted him to do you so much you could do anything?

[-] tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 4 points 2 days ago

My favorite is "The horse raced past the barn fell."

[-] YiddishMcSquidish@lemmy.today 9 points 3 days ago
[-] TheSlad@sh.itjust.works 33 points 3 days ago

Elderly people pilot the watercraft

[-] Redjard@reddthat.com 18 points 3 days ago
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[-] morto@piefed.social 7 points 3 days ago

That's the same sentence, but with a hat and monocle

[-] Swedneck@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 19 hours ago

indubitably

[-] awfulawful@lemmy.blahaj.zone 12 points 3 days ago

The old [people] man (as a verb) the boat.

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[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 61 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

This is perfectly sensical. The speaker owns less humans than have visited Berlin.

[-] IndignantIguana@piefed.social 58 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I feel a lot more like I did when I got here than I do now.

[-] Zizzy@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 points 3 days ago

Thats a good one i like that

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[-] cadekat@pawb.social 58 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

I have zero people, therefore more people have been to Berlin than I have. If I had a sufficient number of people, this sentence could be false. I'd probably need to be a dictator of a medium sized country, but it's possible.

[-] bob_lemon@feddit.org 14 points 3 days ago

Berlin had 12.4 million visitors in 2025. not all of those will have visited for the first time, but I'd still argue that medium sized won't suffice here.

To say nothing about the fact that there is no time limit on when the person needs to have visited.

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[-] shweddy@lemmy.world 41 points 3 days ago

Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like

[-] ceenote@lemmy.world 16 points 3 days ago

You've got to be kidding me. I've been further even more decided to use even go need to do look more as anyone can. Can you really be far even as decided half as much to use go wish for that? My guess is that when one really been far even as decided once to use even go want, it is then that he has really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like. It's just common sense.

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[-] Chrobin@discuss.tchncs.de 29 points 3 days ago

In German, we have "Nachts ist es kälter als draußen", which means "at night, it's colder than outside"

[-] v4ld1z@lemmy.zip 9 points 3 days ago

Bier schmeckt besser als im Glas

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[-] nightlily@leminal.space 16 points 3 days ago

When you come to a fork in the road, take it.

[-] Zacryon@feddit.org 8 points 2 days ago

Can make sense, imo.

If the speaker has never been to Berlin, then, naturally, more people will have been there than the speaker.

[-] EddoWagt@feddit.nl 8 points 2 days ago

Even if the speakers has been there a million times... The speaker is still a single person, so there will definitely have been more people in Berlin than only the speaker

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[-] echodot@feddit.uk 8 points 3 days ago

Cleopatra lived closer in time to the stegosaurus then we do now.

[-] BambiDiego@lemmy.world 5 points 3 days ago

Statistically there are more people than outside the average.

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[-] crapwittyname@feddit.uk 4 points 2 days ago

This is one of the posts of all time

[-] Kanda@reddthat.com 6 points 2 days ago

Well, you've only been to Berlin a few times while other people have been there millions of times

[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 18 points 3 days ago

But this sentence does have meaning.

[-] napoleonsdumbcousin@feddit.org 33 points 3 days ago

Escher sentences are ungrammatical because a matrix clause subject like more people is making a comparison between two sets of individuals, but there is no such set of individuals in the second clause.[5] For the sentence to be grammatical, the subject of the second clause must be a bare plural.[6] Linguists have marked that it is "striking" that, despite the grammar of these sentences not possibly having a meaningful interpretation, people so often report that they sound acceptable,[7] and that it is "remarkable" that people seldom notice any error.[5]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_illusion

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[-] postman@literature.cafe 11 points 3 days ago

Can you rephrase it to show the meaning more clearly?

[-] panda_abyss@lemmy.ca 22 points 3 days ago

Sure.

This is an example of a sentence that has meaning.

[-] postman@literature.cafe 15 points 3 days ago

Ok. Thought you were talking about Berlin.

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[-] Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

In German there is this one poem made of contradictions:

Dunkel war's, der Mond schien helle,
als ein Auto blizeschnelle
langsam um die runde Ecke bog.
Drinnen sassen stehend Leute,
schweigend ins Gespräch vertieft

And I foget the rest....

[-] luciferofastora@feddit.org 11 points 3 days ago

Small correction (you missed a line and rhyme) plus additional lines. There are variations, I'm just reciting the one I know, as best as I know it.

Dunkel war's, der Mond schien helle,
Schnee lag auf der Sommerflur
als ein Auto blizeschnelle
langsam um die runde Ecke fuhr.
Drinnen sassen stehend Leute,
schweigend ins Gespräch vertieft
Als ein totgeschoss'ner Hase
auf der Sandbank Schlittschuh lief.

Und ein blondgelockter Jüngling
mit kohlrabenschwarzem Haar
saß auf einer grünen Banke,
die rot angestrichen war.
Neben ihm ne alte Schrulle,
die grad siebzehn Jahr alt war,
und sie aß 'ne Butterstulle
die mit Schmalz bestrichen war.

As for a translation, slightly liberal due to missing vocabulary:

It was dark, the moon shone brightly
snow covered the summer meadows
when a car rapidly
slowly rounded the curved corner
Within, people sat standing
in deep, silent conversation,
when a rabit, shot dead,
ice-skated on the sandbank

And a blonde-curled youth
with hair black as a raven
sat on a green bench
which was painted red.
Next to him an old shrew,
who was barely seventeen,
and she ate a buttered bread
with a spread of lard

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this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2026
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