Garden-path sentence

Imagine you're walking down a garden path, but suddenly the path splits in two different directions. You have to choose which way to go, but you're not sure which direction is the right one to take. Just like that, a garden-path sentence is a sentence that confuses you because it seems to be leading you down a certain path or direction, but then it takes you in a completely different direction.

For example, let's look at this sentence:

"The horse raced past the barn fell."

When you first start reading this sentence, you might think that the horse is the subject and that it raced past a barn. But then, when you get to the end of the sentence, you realize that it doesn't make sense because it seems like the horse that raced past the barn fell. The correct way to read this sentence is:

"The horse that was raced past the barn fell."

This type of sentence can be confusing and frustrating because you have to stop and go back and re-read the sentence to figure out what it actually means. It's like walking down a garden path and having to turn around because you realized you took the wrong path.