What Is a Dangling Participle?

Dangling participles are tricky words or phrases that change the meaning of a sentence so that we don't say exactly what we intend. Because of where a participle is placed in a sentence, a verb that was intended to modify the subject of a sentence confusingly seems to modify the object.

What Is a Participle?

A participle is word or phrase that modifies the subject of a sentence. Usually the participle is the present, past or gerund of a verb, and can be used as an adjective, as in the sentence, "The screaming children were shushed by the teacher." The participle "screaming" is a gerund of the verb to scream and is used in the sentence as an adjective to describe the children. A participial phrase or clause is an extended participle, as in the phrase "Walking to the store" in the sentence "Walking to the store, I saw Mary."

Participles Dangling From the Object of a Sentence

For the sake of clarity, a participle should be attached to the grammatical subject of a sentence, as in "Peeking through the trees, I saw the house." Because the participial phrase "Peeking through the trees" is attached to the subject "I," it is clear that "I" is doing the peeking. But when the participle is attached to the object instead of the subject, the meaning of the sentence is confused---it "dangles"---so that you don't know whether it modifies the subject or the object. With the participial phrase rearranged in the sentence above, we encounter a ridiculous phrase: "I saw the house peeking through the trees." With the participle now attached to the object, it sounds like the house, rather than I, was doing the the peeking.

Participles Dangling for the Lack of a Subject

Alternatively, if the subject is missing, the participle can again dangle, as in this example, "Lying out on the beach, the ocean was beautiful." In this sentence it sounds as if the ocean looked beautiful because of the way it was lying out on the beach, not that I thought it was beautiful as I was lying out on the beach.

Non-Participial Modifiers Can Also Dangle

Some modifiers that are like participles can also dangle when the subject of the sentence is missing, as in this example: "As president of the United States, my daughter must behave." The phrase "As president of the United States" is a modifier that is not a participle, but in this case it acts like a dangling participle because, without a subject, it seems that "my daughter" must behave because she is president of the United States.

How To Fix Dangling Participles

Dangling participles can usually be fixed by moving the participial phrase to the subject of the sentence. In this way, the sentence "I saw the house peeking through the trees" can be fixed by moving "peeking through the trees" to the beginning of the sentence: "Peeking through the trees, I saw the house." In cases where confusion is caused by the lack of a subject, you can keep the participle from dangling by adding a subject (and often a verb that helps express the attitude of the speaker). The sentence "Lying out on the beach, the ocean was beautiful" can be fixed by adding, "Lying out on the beach, I thought the ocean was beautiful."

References

• Elements of Style; William Strunk, Jr., and E.B. White; 2000

Resources

• Lynch, Guide to Grammar, Rutgers