The chaos of dangly bits: Gird up your participles
- Amber Davis
- Feb 3
- 3 min read
Updated: Mar 24
-Amber Davis, Senior Consultant, Mix Consulting
English grammar is fun. It’s like a puzzle-game of creativity, with a smorgasbord of parts and pieces from different etymological roots, and rules that fall into categories: hard-and-fast, flexible, and made-to-be-broken.
The hard-and-fast rules help writers to ensure reader comprehension. These are the laws and bylaws of making meaning, like: a sentence needs a subject and a predicate. The flexible rules leave room for stylistic choices, like using a semicolon or starting a sentence with “and.” The first is function, the second is form.
And then there are the grammar rules that are made-to-be-broken. These are the pretentious, no-one-talks-like-that rules, like: you can’t end a sentence with a preposition. Breaking that rule is hard to argue against.
When the hard-and-fast rules of English grammar are broken, the result is confusion—often of the comic variety. Such is the case of the dangling participle.
Let’s begin at the beginning.
What is a participle? A participle is a word that is formed from a verb and used as an adjective. It’s sometimes called a modifier.
For example: In the phrase “hot and cold running water” the word “running” is both an adjective that describes the noun “water” and a verb that tells the reader what the water is doing.
Other examples of simple, present participial phrases include lost luggage, spoken word, and tantalizing treats.
Got it? Cool. Now let’s level up.
A participle might be past or present tense, and a participle is a modifier that cannot be the main verb.
For example:
Here’s one more:
When does a participle dangle? A dangling participle occurs when your participial phrase is left high and dry with no noun to modify. A closely related mistake, the misplaced modifier, happens when the participial phrase modifies the wrong noun.
Chaos ensues!
Give us examples, you say? I can do better than that. I took a few danglies and misplaced mods and used their unintended meaning to create some illustrations with Midjourney. Please enjoy.
Dangling participle: Walking out of the grocery store, the grapes scattered all over the sidewalk.
The only nouns in this sentence are the grocery store, the grapes, and the sidewalk, none of which can walk, so the subject of the participle is completely missing. Who walked?
How to fix it: As we walked out of the grocery store, the grapes scattered all over the sidewalk.
OR
Walking out of the grocery store, we dropped the grapes, and they scattered all over the sidewalk.
Misplaced modifier: Glowing in the dark, Georgie could see the stars.
While the participle “glowing” should be modifying “stars,” it ends up describing the subject of this sentence: Georgie (my dog).
How to fix it: Georgie could see the stars glowing in the dark.
(Okay, that one is more adorable than chaotic.)
Dangling participle: Waiting for the soda to come out, the vending machine made odd noises.
It’s the machine making the noises…but is it the machine waiting for the soda to come out?
How to fix it: While waiting for the soda to come out, we heard the vending machine make odd noises.
Misplaced modifier: Having thrown obstacles and delays at the project, Violet exhibited great patience and professionalism.
Hmmm…someone is not doing Violet any favors with this endorsement. The misplaced modifier makes it seem as though Violet caused the problems.
How to fix it: The executive team threw obstacles and delays at the project, yet Violet exhibited great patience and professionalism.
Dangling participle: Installing the new hard drive, the computer shut down unexpectedly.
Who (or what) is installing the new hard drive? We seem to be missing a subject.
How to fix it? You try this one on your own. Now that you’re armed with knowledge, no participle would dare dangle, no modifier miss its target noun.
Stay tuned for more good times with grammar and other stuff we Mix nerds love.
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