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"
this post was submitted on 10 Sep 2026
693 points (99.6% liked)
196
7029 readers
3075 users here now
Community Rules
You must post before you leave
Be nice. Assume others have good intent (within reason).
Block or ignore posts, comments, and users that irritate you in some way rather than engaging. Report if they are actually breaking community rules.
Use content warnings and/or mark as NSFW when appropriate. Most posts with content warnings likely need to be marked NSFW.
Most 196 posts are memes, shitposts, cute images, or even just recent things that happened, etc. There is no real theme, but try to avoid posts that are very inflammatory, offensive, very low quality, or very "off topic".
Bigotry is not allowed, this includes (but is not limited to): Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, Sexism, Abelism, Classism, or discrimination based on things like Ethnicity, Nationality, Language, or Religion.
Avoid shilling for corporations, posting advertisements, or promoting exploitation of workers.
Proselytization, support, or defense of authoritarianism is not welcome. This includes but is not limited to: imperialism, nationalism, genocide denial, ethnic or racial supremacy, fascism, Nazism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, etc.
Avoid AI generated content.
Avoid misinformation.
Avoid incomprehensible posts.
No threats or personal attacks.
No spam.
Moderator Guidelines
Moderator Guidelines
- Don’t be mean to users. Be gentle or neutral.
- Most moderator actions which have a modlog message should include your username.
- When in doubt about whether or not a user is problematic, send them a DM.
- Don’t waste time debating/arguing with problematic users.
- Assume the best, but don’t tolerate sealioning/just asking questions/concern trolling.
- Ask another mod to take over cases you struggle with, if you get tired, or when things get personal.
- Ask the other mods for advice when things get complicated.
- Share everything you do in the mod matrix, both so several mods aren't unknowingly handling the same issues, but also so you can receive feedback on what you intend to do.
- Don't rush mod actions. If a case doesn't need to be handled right away, consider taking a short break before getting to it. This is to say, cool down and make room for feedback.
- Don’t perform too much moderation in the comments, except if you want a verdict to be public or to ask people to dial a convo down/stop. Single comment warnings are okay.
- Send users concise DMs about verdicts about them, such as bans etc, except in cases where it is clear we don’t want them at all, such as obvious transphobes. No need to notify someone they haven’t been banned of course.
- Explain to a user why their behavior is problematic and how it is distressing others rather than engage with whatever they are saying. Ask them to avoid this in the future and send them packing if they do not comply.
- First warn users, then temp ban them, then finally perma ban them when they break the rules or act inappropriately. Skip steps if necessary.
- Use neutral statements like “this statement can be considered transphobic” rather than “you are being transphobic”.
- No large decisions or actions without community input (polls or meta posts f.ex.).
- Large internal decisions (such as ousting a mod) might require a vote, needing more than 50% of the votes to pass. Also consider asking the community for feedback.
- Remember you are a voluntary moderator. You don’t get paid. Take a break when you need one. Perhaps ask another moderator to step in if necessary.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana
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.
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.
I remember seeing it in school and having it explained to me so many times and my brain just refuses to understand it.
Buffalonian bison [that] Buffalonian bison bully [, likewise] bully Buffalonian bison
(Buffalonian is the demonym for residents of Buffalo, NY)
Police police police police police police police police police police.
Pig pig pig pig pig pig pig pig pig pig.
load more comments
(1 replies)
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?
This one took me a couple of rereads lol
load more comments
(4 replies)
This is perfectly sensical. The speaker owns less humans than have visited Berlin.
load more comments
(4 replies)
I feel a lot more like I did when I got here than I do now.
Thats a good one i like that
load more comments
(2 replies)
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.
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.
load more comments
(1 replies)
Has Anyone Really Been Far Even as Decided to Use Even Go Want to do Look More Like
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.
I know i sure have.
In German, we have "Nachts ist es kälter als draußen", which means "at night, it's colder than outside"
But this sentence does have meaning.
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]
load more comments
(6 replies)
Can you rephrase it to show the meaning more clearly?
Sure.
This is an example of a sentence that has meaning.
"I have been to Berlin zero times. More people have been to Berlin than i have."
Are you joking because that makes no sense
Huh, cool! No I'm being serious. It makes sense to me, even if it isn't grammatical -- i wouldn't notice that it wasn't grammatical except that it was pointed out in the meme.
Maybe how much sense it makes is determined culturally.
If i were trying to remove more ambiguity, i would say, "I have been to Berlin zero times. More people have been to Berlin than I have been."
The last "been" is one of those "assumed" words that linguists talk about people leaving out of sentences.
Let me know if that makes more sense.
What are you actually trying to say though? The sentence ostensibly compares two values. "Number of times you've been to Berlin" vs "Amount of people who've been to Berlin". You can't compare those two. As a maths teacher would say, you're mixing your units.
load more comments
(3 replies)
load more comments
(2 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
When you come to a fork in the road, take it.
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....
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 sandbankAnd 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
load more comments
(1 replies)
load more comments
(1 replies)
Can make sense, imo.
If the speaker has never been to Berlin, then, naturally, more people will have been there than the speaker.
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
load more comments
(1 replies)
view more: next ›