Dangling participles are one of the most egregious modifier mistakes. So what are they? And more importantly, how do you correct them? Let’s take a look.
What Is a Dangling Participle?
Dangling participles occur when you include a participle phrase intended to modify a noun that doesn’t actually exist in the sentence.
Here are some examples:
- “Walking along the path, a mudslide blocked the way.” The participle phrase is “walking along the path” but the noun—the person whose path is blocked—is missing.
- “After reading the book, the ending was disappointing.” The participle phrase is “after reading the book” but the noun—who is disappointed—is missing.
- “Running for the bus, his wallet fell out of his pocket.” The participle phrase is “running for the bus” but the noun—the person who lost the wallet—is missing. (His is a possessive pronoun incapable of performing the action described and is, more importantly, not the intended subject of the sentence.)
- “Flying over the city, the lights looked beautiful.” The participle phrase is “flying over the city” but the noun—whoever is seeing the beautiful lights—is missing.
Correcting Danglers
If you want to keep the participle phrase in your sentence, then you have to correct the rest of the sentence by adding in the missing noun.
Here are some examples using our danglers from above:
- “Walking along the path, a mudslide blocked the way” becomes “Walking along the path, Benny found a mudslide blocked his way.”
- “After reading the book, the ending was disappointing” becomes “After reading the book, I was disappointed in the ending.”
- “Running for the bus, his wallet fell out of his pocket” becomes “Running for the bus, Benny felt his wallet fall out of his pocket.”
- “Flying over the city, the lights looked beautiful” becomes “Flying over the city, Julia looked down on the beautiful lights.”
You can also fix dangling participles by rewriting the sentence to remove the participle phrase altogether.
Here are a few examples:
- “Walking along the path, Benny found a mudslide blocked his way” becomes “While Benny was walking along the path, he found a mudslide blocked his way.” (NOTE: Don’t let that comma fool you, this sentence does not contain a participle phrase. The first part of the sentence is a dependent clause that begins with a subordinating conjunction.)
- “After reading the book, I was disappointed in the ending” becomes “I was disappointed in the ending of the book after reading it.”
- “Running for the bus, Benny felt his wallet fall out of his pocket” becomes “Benny’s wallet fell out of his pocket as he was running for the bus.”
- “Flying over the city, Julia looked down on the beautiful lights” becomes “As Julia flew over the city, she looked down on the beautiful lights.”
As you can see, sometimes dropping the participle phrase makes the sentence easier to read (as is the case with Benny and the bus). But sometimes doing so can add a lot of wordiness (as is the case with Benny and the mudslide).
Which sentence approach to use in your specific situation depends on many things, including the sentences surrounding it.
If you’ve already used a sentence with a participle phrase nearby, then you don’t want to do it again too soon or you’ll create unwanted repetition. On the other hand, if you’ve used a lot of straightforward sentences that don’t contain clauses, structuring this sentence with a dependent clause or participle phrase will help break up the monotony.
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