dangling participles

Unanchored verbal phrases

A dangling participle is a participial phrase that doesn't clearly attach to the noun it's meant to modify: Walking down the street, the trees looked beautiful leaves "walking" dangling because trees don't walk.

The sentence should specify who was walking.

Grammarians frown on dangling participles, though they're common in casual speech and often pass unnoticed.

Related

misplaced modifier · correction · adjective · clauses · underline · ambiguity · writing · revisions · verb phrase · modifier · mark · subject · antecedent · Strunk and White · style guide · dependent clause · agreement · gerund

Opposites
grammatical correctness

dangling participlesclear prose

Transparent, unambiguous writing

Family

dangling, dangle, dangled, dangles, participle, partial, partially, particle, particles

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Used worldwide · Timeless · Abstract · Rated G