Answer: dangling participles/dangling modifiers

[green_grrl]

mha_chan wants to know: What are dangling participles, modifiers, etc.?

In short, dangling modifiers (sometimes called misplaced modifiers) are a type of grammatical error that can make your sentences unclear, misleading, or downright silly to the reader. Dangling participles are a subset of dangling modifiers.

Comments

[mrsquizzical]

love the final zinger! :)

[green_grrl]

Can't go wrong with Groucho Marx!

[pathology_doc]

Hermione watched the Quidditch team leafing idly through her textbook. [Wait, the whole team is reading her book? Why?]

Don't know, but it sounds like a neat prompt for a fic challenge.

Great article, BTW.

[green_grrl]

That's where misplaced modifiers can really screw things up. "Did you mean Hermione or the team? Because it could be the team; it would just need an explanation...."

Thanks!

[amai_kaminari]

I just got this mental image of the whole Quidditch team being put in detention and forced to take remedial lessons from Hermione. ^_~

[pathology_doc]

It could be either, though I had the team in mind. The challenge would be to realise there was a choice, to make it as you saw fit, and to write the explanation accordingly.

[garonne]

Great article, thanks!

[green_grrl]

I'm glad you liked it!

[haldoor]

Thank you; this is one of those curly things that can catch you out, so this is very helpful.

[green_grrl]

Always happy to be of help!

[mha_chan]

thank you very much! :D

[green_grrl]

You are very welcome!