Write these sentences on the board, and ask your students (preferably advanced or intermediate level) to interpret them. Do not tell them that each sentence has more than one meaning. This activity will hem them analyze English sentence structure and lexicon better.
- The lady hit the man with an umbrella.
- He gave her cat food.
- John went to the bank.
- The man saw the boy with the binoculars.
- They are hunting dogs.
- I saw her duck.
- I told her books were funny.
- I sais see you on Sunday
- I love hunting dogs.
- Will Will will the will to Will?
If you do not understand the sentences, ask me 
What else can you add to this list? Leave your example sentences below please.
The lady hit the man with the umbrella?????
Please explain
Dear Kathy,
This is an ambiguous sentence because it has two meanings:
1: The lady hit the man using an umbrella
2: The lady hit the man who had an umbrella
hope it will make sense
thanks for stopping by
I understand the ambiguity of all of the sentences except “John went to the bank.” ???Help.
He gave her cat food..
please help am writing tommorrow
can it mean that: he gave her food with poison
explain all the above sentence for me please..thnx
1) She was given cat food 2) Her cat was given food
Thank you so much for your comment
The word bank has two meanings 1) the place where we deposit money 2) river bank ( we say seaside but river bank)
Thank you so much for your comment
Hope the other Comments help
Thank you so much
For mlungisi & osei Jafaro:
He gave her cat food. –> He gave her CAT (some) food. / He gave HER cat-food. (food which the cat eats)
John went to the bank. –> ????
The man saw the boy with the binoculars. –> The man used his binoculars and saw the boy. / The man saw the boy who was holding binoculars.
They are hunting dogs. –> Describing the kind of dogs that THEY are. / Those people are hunting (action that the people are doing) DOGS. yikes!
I saw her duck. –> Duck being used an animal belonging to her OR “duck” being an action, as in “she ducked when the ball came flying toward her.”
I told her books were funny. –> punctuation would help this one: I told her, “books were funny.” / I told (someone), “HER books (possessive) were books.”
I sais (sic) see you on Sunday. –> I said, “See you on Sunday.” / I said, “See you!” on Sunday.
I love hunting dogs. –> similar to above…I love hunting-dogs (a category of dogs). / I love hunting (an action that “I” is doing) dogs.
Will Will will the will to Will? –> Will (question) Will (boys name) will (an action, to give after you’re dead) the will (a plan for what to do with your stuff after you’re dead) to Will (another boy)? OR Will Will will the will (the will to live or survive) to Will?
….so, back to my question….what is ambiguous about “John went to the bank”?
Also, if anyone has any different twists to the above sentences, please post!
Hi Angela,
You are great. Thanks for the explanation. As for your question, the word bank has two meanings. The second meaning is river bank.
Thanks
I was never a virgin. Is this an ambiguous sentence?
Dear Mpho Manyama,
I am really not sure. I guess we should ask a native speaker.
thanks
Bank- Bank were you transfer money/Bank- by the riverbank